CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2021-46988 — Linux Linux Kernel security vulnerability

Medium CVSS 5.5

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.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
5.5 (3.1)
Published
2024-02-28
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
linux/kernel
Weaknesses
CWE-416

Affected products

  • linux / linux_kernel
  • linux / linux_kernel / 5.13

Showing 2 representative product identities from 7 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Use-after-free, double free, and expired resource use

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace ownership, references, callbacks, asynchronous tasks, and teardown paths around the affected object or resource.
  • Identify reachable inputs and timing or state transitions that can release the object while references remain.
  • Confirm affected builds, allocators, feature flags, architectures, and process privileges.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the maintained ownership or lifetime fix and rebuild all artifacts containing the affected native code.
  • Use explicit ownership, safe reference management, cancellation and join semantics, and idempotent teardown.
  • Add deterministic lifetime tests plus isolated sanitizer and concurrency coverage for shutdown and error paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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