CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2021-47241 — Linux Linux Kernel security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.5

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ethtool: strset: fix message length calculation Outer nest for ETHTOOL_A_STRSET_STRINGSETS is not accounted for. This may result in ETHTOOL_MSG_STRSET_GET producing a warning like: calculated message payload length (684) not sufficient WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 30967 at net/ethtool/netlink.c:369 ethnl_default_doit+0x87a/0xa20 and a splat. As usually with such warnings three conditions must be met for the warning to trigger: - there must be no skb size rounding up (e.g. reply_size of 684); - string set must be per-device (so that the header gets populated); - the device name must be at least 12 characters long. all in all with current user space it looks like reading priv flags is the only place this could potentially happen. Or with syzbot :)

Severity
High
CVSS
7.5 (3.1)
Published
2024-05-21
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
linux/kernel
Weaknesses
CWE-266

Affected products

  • linux / linux_kernel
  • linux / linux_kernel / 5.13

Showing 2 representative product identities from 8 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

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

Check exposure

  • Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
  • Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
  • Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
  • Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
  • Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

The detailed catalog view below loads this exact record, its source evidence, and the full seven-phase agentic change plan.