CVE-2021-46988

low-risk
Published 2024-02-28

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: userfaultfd: release page in error path to avoid BUG_ON Consider the following sequence of events: 1. Userspace issues a UFFD ioctl, which ends up calling into shmem_mfill_atomic_pte(). We successfully account the blocks, we shmem_alloc_page(), but then the copy_from_user() fails. We return -ENOENT. We don't release the page we allocated. 2. Our caller detects this error code, tries the copy_from_user() after dropping the mmap_lock, and retries, calling back into shmem_mfill_atomic_pte(). 3. Meanwhile, let's say another process filled up the tmpfs being used. 4. So shmem_mfill_atomic_pte() fails to account blocks this time, and immediately returns - without releasing the page. This triggers a BUG_ON in our caller, which asserts that the page should always be consumed, unless -ENOENT is returned. To fix this, detect if we have such a "dangling" page when accounting fails, and if so, release it before returning.

Do I need to act?

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0.01% chance of exploitation
EPSS score — low exploit probability
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Not on CISA KEV list
No confirmed active exploitation reported to CISA
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Patch status unknown
Check vendor advisories for fix availability and mitigation guidance
5
CVSS 5.5/10 Medium
LOCAL / LOW complexity

Affected Products (2)

Affected Vendors

25
/ 100
low-risk
Severity 18/34 · Moderate
Exploitability 0/34 · Minimal
Exposure 7/34 · Low