high CVSS 7.8

CVE-2021-47536·Kernel vulnerability

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/smc: fix wrong list_del in smc_lgr_cleanup_early smc_lgr_cleanup_early() meant to delete the link group from the link group list, but it deleted the list head by mistake. This may cause memory corruption since we didn't remove the real link group from the list and later memseted the link group structure. We got a list corruption panic when testing: [  231.277259] list_del corruption. prev->next should be ffff8881398a8000, but was 0000000000000000 [  231.278222] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [  231.278726] kernel BUG at lib/list_debug.c:53! [  231.279326] invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI [  231.279803] CPU: 0 PID: 5 Comm: kworker/0:0 Not tainted 5.10.46+ #435 [  231.280466] Hardware name: Alibaba Cloud ECS, BIOS 8c24b4c 04/01/2014 [  231.281248] Workqueue: events smc_link_down_work [  231.281732] RIP: 0010:__list_del_entry_valid+0x70/0x90 [  231.282258] Code: 4c 60 82 e8 7d cc 6a 00 0f 0b 48 89 fe 48 c7 c7 88 4c 60 82 e8 6c cc 6a 00 0f 0b 48 89 fe 48 c7 c7 c0 4c 60 82 e8 5b cc 6a 00 <0f> 0b 48 89 fe 48 c7 c7 00 4d 60 82 e8 4a cc 6a 00 0f 0b cc cc cc [  231.284146] RSP: 0018:ffffc90000033d58 EFLAGS: 00010292 [  231.284685] RAX: 0000000000000054 RBX: ffff8881398a8000 RCX: 0000000000000000 [  231.285415] RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: ffff88813bc18040 RDI: ffff88813bc18040 [  231.286141] RBP: ffffffff8305ad40 R08: 0000000000000003 R09: 0000000000000001 [  231.286873] R10: ffffffff82803da0 R11: ffffc90000033b90 R12: 0000000000000001 [  231.287606] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffff8881398a8000 R15: 0000000000000003 [  231.288337] FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88813bc00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [  231.289160] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [  231.289754] CR2: 0000000000e72058 CR3: 000000010fa96006 CR4: 00000000003706f0 [  231.290485] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 [  231.291211] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 [  231.291940] Call Trace: [  231.292211]  smc_lgr_terminate_sched+0x53/0xa0 [  231.292677]  smc_switch_conns+0x75/0x6b0 [  231.293085]  ? update_load_avg+0x1a6/0x590 [  231.293517]  ? ttwu_do_wakeup+0x17/0x150 [  231.293907]  ? update_load_avg+0x1a6/0x590 [  231.294317]  ? newidle_balance+0xca/0x3d0 [  231.294716]  smcr_link_down+0x50/0x1a0 [  231.295090]  ? __wake_up_common_lock+0x77/0x90 [  231.295534]  smc_link_down_work+0x46/0x60 [  231.295933]  process_one_work+0x18b/0x350

Severity
high
Software
Kernel
Fixed in
5.15.7
Published
2024-05-24

Affected versions

From: 5.11

Until: 5.15.7

Fixed in: 5.15.7

How to fix this CVE

Update your Linux kernel to version 5.15.7 or later to fix a critical list management bug in the SMC (Shared Memory Communications) networking subsystem. This vulnerability can cause memory corruption and kernel panics when link groups are improperly removed from tracking lists. Applying the patch ensures proper cleanup of SMC link group structures without corrupting kernel memory.

sudo dnf update kernel kernel-devel

Defensia detects this vulnerability

How to check if you are affected

  1. Step 1: Check your kernel version with `uname -r` and compare against the affected range (5.11 to 5.15.6)
  2. Step 2: Verify SMC networking is enabled with `grep -i CONFIG_SMC /boot/config-$(uname -r)` (should show CONFIG_SMC=y or CONFIG_SMC=m)
  3. Step 3: Search system logs for list corruption panics: `sudo journalctl -b | grep -i 'list_del corruption'` or `sudo dmesg | grep -i 'list_del corruption'`
  4. Step 4: Confirm the kernel patch was applied by checking the kernel release date matches or exceeds December 2021: `uname -a`

FAQ

What is CVE-2021-47536?

This vulnerability is a logic error in the Linux kernel's SMC networking layer where the cleanup function deletes the wrong list node, leaving dangling references that corrupt kernel memory when the actual structure is overwritten.

Is CVE-2021-47536 being actively exploited?

No, this vulnerability is not listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog and no public exploits are available. However, it can be triggered by legitimate network events involving SMC link failures.

What versions of Kernel are affected by CVE-2021-47536?

Linux kernel versions 5.11 through 5.15.6 are vulnerable. The fix was released in kernel 5.15.7 and backported to stable branches.

How do I check if my server is vulnerable to CVE-2021-47536?

Run `uname -r` to get your kernel version. If it's between 5.11 and 5.15.6 and SMC is enabled (`grep CONFIG_SMC /boot/config-$(uname -r)`), your system is vulnerable.

Does Defensia detect CVE-2021-47536?

Yes — Defensia's CVE advisory scanner compares installed package versions against the NVD database. If Kernel is installed on a monitored server, CVE-2021-47536 will appear in your dashboard with remediation steps.

Related Kernel CVEs

CVE-2024-42256CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cifs: Fix server re-repick on subrequest retry When a subrequest is marked for needing retry, netfs will call cifs_prepare_write() which will make cifs repick the server for the op before renegotiating credits; it then calls cifs_issue_write() which invokes smb2_async_writev() - which re-repicks the server. If a different server is then selected, this causes the increment of server->in_flight to happen against one record and the decrement to happen against another, leading to misaccounting. Fix this by just removing the repick code in smb2_async_writev(). As this is only called from netfslib-driven code, cifs_prepare_write() should always have been called first, and so server should never be NULL and the preparatory step is repeated in the event that we do a retry. The problem manifests as a warning looking something like: WARNING: CPU: 4 PID: 72896 at fs/smb/client/smb2ops.c:97 smb2_add_credits+0x3f0/0x9e0 [cifs] ... RIP: 0010:smb2_add_credits+0x3f0/0x9e0 [cifs] ... smb2_writev_callback+0x334/0x560 [cifs] cifs_demultiplex_thread+0x77a/0x11b0 [cifs] kthread+0x187/0x1d0 ret_from_fork+0x34/0x60 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 Which may be triggered by a number of different xfstests running against an Azure server in multichannel mode. generic/249 seems the most repeatable, but generic/215, generic/249 and generic/308 may also show it.
CVE-2024-39462CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: clk: bcm: dvp: Assign ->num before accessing ->hws Commit f316cdff8d67 ("clk: Annotate struct clk_hw_onecell_data with __counted_by") annotated the hws member of 'struct clk_hw_onecell_data' with __counted_by, which informs the bounds sanitizer about the number of elements in hws, so that it can warn when hws is accessed out of bounds. As noted in that change, the __counted_by member must be initialized with the number of elements before the first array access happens, otherwise there will be a warning from each access prior to the initialization because the number of elements is zero. This occurs in clk_dvp_probe() due to ->num being assigned after ->hws has been accessed: UBSAN: array-index-out-of-bounds in drivers/clk/bcm/clk-bcm2711-dvp.c:59:2 index 0 is out of range for type 'struct clk_hw *[] __counted_by(num)' (aka 'struct clk_hw *[]') Move the ->num initialization to before the first access of ->hws, which clears up the warning.
CVE-2024-38623CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs/ntfs3: Use variable length array instead of fixed size Should fix smatch warning: ntfs_set_label() error: __builtin_memcpy() 'uni->name' too small (20 vs 256)
CVE-2024-38612CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv6: sr: fix invalid unregister error path The error path of seg6_init() is wrong in case CONFIG_IPV6_SEG6_LWTUNNEL is not defined. In that case if seg6_hmac_init() fails, the genl_unregister_family() isn't called. This issue exist since commit 46738b1317e1 ("ipv6: sr: add option to control lwtunnel support"), and commit 5559cea2d5aa ("ipv6: sr: fix possible use-after-free and null-ptr-deref") replaced unregister_pernet_subsys() with genl_unregister_family() in this error path.
CVE-2021-47548CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ethernet: hisilicon: hns: hns_dsaf_misc: fix a possible array overflow in hns_dsaf_ge_srst_by_port() The if statement: if (port >= DSAF_GE_NUM) return; limits the value of port less than DSAF_GE_NUM (i.e., 8). However, if the value of port is 6 or 7, an array overflow could occur: port_rst_off = dsaf_dev->mac_cb[port]->port_rst_off; because the length of dsaf_dev->mac_cb is DSAF_MAX_PORT_NUM (i.e., 6). To fix this possible array overflow, we first check port and if it is greater than or equal to DSAF_MAX_PORT_NUM, the function returns.

References

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