CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2021-46984 — Linux Linux Kernel security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.8

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: kyber: fix out of bounds access when preempted __blk_mq_sched_bio_merge() gets the ctx and hctx for the current CPU and passes the hctx to ->bio_merge(). kyber_bio_merge() then gets the ctx for the current CPU again and uses that to get the corresponding Kyber context in the passed hctx. However, the thread may be preempted between the two calls to blk_mq_get_ctx(), and the ctx returned the second time may no longer correspond to the passed hctx. This "works" accidentally most of the time, but it can cause us to read garbage if the second ctx came from an hctx with more ctx's than the first one (i.e., if ctx->index_hw[hctx->type] > hctx->nr_ctx). This manifested as this UBSAN array index out of bounds error reported by Jakub: UBSAN: array-index-out-of-bounds in ../kernel/locking/qspinlock.c:130:9 index 13106 is out of range for type 'long unsigned int [128]' Call Trace: dump_stack+0xa4/0xe5 ubsan_epilogue+0x5/0x40 __ubsan_handle_out_of_bounds.cold.13+0x2a/0x34 queued_spin_lock_slowpath+0x476/0x480 do_raw_spin_lock+0x1c2/0x1d0 kyber_bio_merge+0x112/0x180 blk_mq_submit_bio+0x1f5/0x1100 submit_bio_noacct+0x7b0/0x870…

Severity
High
CVSS
7.8 (3.1)
Published
2024-02-28
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
linux/kernel
Weaknesses
CWE-129

Affected products

  • linux / linux_kernel
  • linux / linux_kernel / 5.13

Showing 2 representative product identities from 5 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Buffer bounds, memory safety, and memory corruption

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Check exposure

  • Identify affected native-code versions, build flags, architectures, parsers, codecs, drivers, and input paths in all shipped artifacts.
  • Determine whether untrusted data reaches the affected routine and the process privilege, sandbox, and network exposure.
  • Confirm statically linked, vendored, firmware, and platform-provided copies, not only package-manager records.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the maintained upstream correction or replace the affected component, then rebuild every dependent artifact from clean inputs.
  • Adopt bounds-checked interfaces, validated sizes and integer conversions, clear ownership, and memory-safe components where practical.
  • Enable supported compiler and runtime hardening and add sanitized tests and fuzz regression seeds derived from non-weaponized fixtures.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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