Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2021-46931
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5e: Wrap the tx reporter dump callback to extract the sq Function mlx5e_tx_reporter_dump_sq() casts its void * argument to struct mlx5e_txqsq *, but in TX-timeout-recovery flow the argument is actually of type struct mlx5e_tx_timeout_ctx *. mlx5_core 0000:08:00.1 enp8s0f1: TX timeout detected mlx5_core 0000:08:00.1 enp8s0f1: TX timeout on queue: 1, SQ: 0x11ec, CQ: 0x146d, SQ Cons: 0x0 SQ Prod: 0x1, usecs since last trans: 21565000 BUG: stack guard page was hit at 0000000093f1a2de (stack is 00000000b66ea0dc..000000004d932dae) kernel stack overflow (page fault): 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI CPU: 5 PID: 95 Comm: kworker/u20:1 Tainted: G W OE 5.13.0_mlnx #1 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.13.0-0-gf21b5a4aeb02-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 Workqueue: mlx5e mlx5e_tx_timeout_work [mlx5_core] RIP: 0010:mlx5e_tx_reporter_dump_sq+0xd3/0x180 [mlx5_core] Call Trace: mlx5e_tx_reporter_dump+0x43/0x1c0 [mlx5_core] devlink_health_do_dump.part.91+0x71/0xd0 devlink_health_report+0x157/0x1b0 mlx5e_reporter_tx_timeout+0xb9/0xf0 [mlx5_core] ? mlx5e_tx_reporter_err_cqe_recover+0x1d0/0x1d0 [mlx5_core] ? mlx5e_health_queue_dump+0xd0/0xd0 [mlx5_core] ? update_load_avg+0x19b/0x550 ? set_next_entity+0x72/0x80 ? pick_next_task_fair+0x227/0x340 ? finish_task_switch+0xa2/0x280 mlx5e_tx_timeout_work+0x83/0xb0 [mlx5_core] process_one_work+0x1de/0x3a0 worker_thread+0x2d/0x3c0 ? process_one_work+0x3a0/0x3a0 kthread+0x115/0x130 ? kthread_park+0x90/0x90 ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30 --[ end trace 51ccabea504edaff ]--- RIP: 0010:mlx5e_tx_reporter_dump_sq+0xd3/0x180 PKRU: 55555554 Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception Kernel Offset: disabled end Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception To fix this bug add a wrapper for mlx5e_tx_reporter_dump_sq() which extracts the sq from struct mlx5e_tx_timeout_ctx and set it as the TX-timeout-recovery flow dump callback.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysisThe program writes past the bounds of a buffer, overwriting adjacent memory an attacker can turn to their advantage. Crafted input can overwrite control data and redirect execution. Remediation is validating every index and length before a write, plus modern memory-safety mitigations.
General guidance for the out-of-bounds write class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
>= 5.7.0, < 5.10.90>= 5.11.0, < 5.15.13CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
dbcve · scoped5.10.905.15.13
5.10.90 or 5.15.13 (or later stable releases)
- Upgrade the Linux kernel to version 5.10.90 or later within the 5.10.x stable branch
- Alternatively, upgrade to version 5.15.13 or later within the 5.15.x stable branch
- After kernel upgrade, verify the mlx5e driver is loaded and networking functions normally
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-46931 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-46931 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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