CVE intelligence and bounded remediation
CVE-2021-47608 — Linux Linux Kernel security vulnerability
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Fix kernel address leakage in atomic fetch The change in commit 37086bfdc737 ("bpf: Propagate stack bounds to registers in atomics w/ BPF_FETCH") around check_mem_access() handling is buggy since this would allow for unprivileged users to leak kernel pointers. For example, an atomic fetch/and with -1 on a stack destination which holds a spilled pointer will migrate the spilled register type into a scalar, which can then be exported out of the program (since scalar != pointer) by dumping it into a map value. The original implementation of XADD was preventing this situation by using a double call to check_mem_access() one with BPF_READ and a subsequent one with BPF_WRITE, in both cases passing -1 as a placeholder value instead of register as per XADD semantics since it didn't contain a value fetch. The BPF_READ also included a check in check_stack_read_fixed_off() which rejects the program if the stack slot is of __is_pointer_value() if dst_regno < 0. The latter is to distinguish whether we're dealing with a regular stack spill/ fill or some arithmetical operation which is disallowed on non-scalars, see also 6e…
- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 5.5 (3.1)
- Published
- 2024-06-19
- CISA KEV
- Not currently listed
- Ecosystem
- linux/kernel
Affected products
- linux / linux_kernel
- linux / linux_kernel / 5.16
Matched remediation archetype
General vulnerability remediation
This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.
Check exposure
- Confirm the affected component, deployment paths, reachable interfaces, and enabled features from inventories and configuration, without probing production destructively.
- Compare the advisory's affected conditions with the repository lockfiles, build manifests, artifacts, and runtime inventory.
- Identify data sensitivity, trust boundaries, and privilege level for every confirmed affected deployment.
Remediate safely
- Apply a vendor-supported fix or remove the affected component or feature; record the selected change and its source in the repository.
- Update direct and transitive dependency locks, generated artifacts, deployment manifests, and asset inventories together.
- Add a regression test for the documented unsafe condition using inert inputs and preserve rollback instructions.
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.