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Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2021-46954

HIGH · 7.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-02-27
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.11.20 / 5.12.3 or later.
See remediation →
73/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click Patch available

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 · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: sch_frag: fix stack OOB read while fragmenting IPv4 packets when 'act_mirred' tries to fragment IPv4 packets that had been previously re-assembled using 'act_ct', splats like the following can be observed on kernels built with KASAN: BUG: KASAN: stack-out-of-bounds in ip_do_fragment+0x1b03/0x1f60 Read of size 1 at addr ffff888147009574 by task ping/947 CPU: 0 PID: 947 Comm: ping Not tainted 5.12.0-rc6+ #418 Hardware name: Red Hat KVM, BIOS 1.11.1-4.module+el8.1.0+4066+0f1aadab 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <IRQ> dump_stack+0x92/0xc1 print_address_description.constprop.7+0x1a/0x150 kasan_report.cold.13+0x7f/0x111 ip_do_fragment+0x1b03/0x1f60 sch_fragment+0x4bf/0xe40 tcf_mirred_act+0xc3d/0x11a0 [act_mirred] tcf_action_exec+0x104/0x3e0 fl_classify+0x49a/0x5e0 [cls_flower] tcf_classify_ingress+0x18a/0x820 __netif_receive_skb_core+0xae7/0x3340 __netif_receive_skb_one_core+0xb6/0x1b0 process_backlog+0x1ef/0x6c0 __napi_poll+0xaa/0x500 net_rx_action+0x702/0xac0 __do_softirq+0x1e4/0x97f do_softirq+0x71/0x90 </IRQ> __local_bh_enable_ip+0xdb/0xf0 ip_finish_output2+0x760/0x2120 ip_do_fragment+0x15a5/0x1f60 __ip_finish_output+0x4c2/0xea0 ip_output+0x1ca/0x4d0 ip_send_skb+0x37/0xa0 raw_sendmsg+0x1c4b/0x2d00 sock_sendmsg+0xdb/0x110 __sys_sendto+0x1d7/0x2b0 __x64_sys_sendto+0xdd/0x1b0 do_syscall_64+0x33/0x40 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae RIP: 0033:0x7f82e13853eb Code: 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 44 00 00 f3 0f 1e fa 48 8d 05 75 42 2c 00 41 89 ca 8b 00 85 c0 75 14 b8 2c 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 75 c3 0f 1f 40 00 41 57 4d 89 c7 41 56 41 89 RSP: 002b:00007ffe01fad888 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002c RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00005571aac13700 RCX: 00007f82e13853eb RDX: 0000000000002330 RSI: 00005571aac13700 RDI: 0000000000000003 RBP: 0000000000002330 R08: 00005571aac10500 R09: 0000000000000010 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 00007ffe01faefb0 R13: 00007ffe01fad890 R14: 00007ffe01fad980 R15: 00005571aac0f0a0 The buggy address belongs to the page: page:000000001dff2e03 refcount:1 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x147009 flags: 0x17ffffc0001000(reserved) raw: 0017ffffc0001000 ffffea00051c0248 ffffea00051c0248 0000000000000000 raw: 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 00000001ffffffff 0000000000000000 page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected Memory state around the buggy address: ffff888147009400: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ffff888147009480: f1 f1 f1 f1 04 f2 f2 f2 f2 f2 f2 f2 00 00 00 00 >ffff888147009500: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 f2 f2 f2 f2 f2 f2 ^ ffff888147009580: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ffff888147009600: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 f2 f2 f2 for IPv4 packets, sch_fragment() uses a temporary struct dst_entry. Then, in the following call graph: ip_do_fragment() ip_skb_dst_mtu() ip_dst_mtu_maybe_forward() ip_mtu_locked() the pointer to struct dst_entry is used as pointer to struct rtable: this turns the access to struct members like rt_mtu_locked into an OOB read in the stack. Fix this changing the temporary variable used for IPv4 packets in sch_fragment(), similarly to what is done for IPv6 few lines below.

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 analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-125

The code reads past the end (or before the start) of a buffer, returning memory that was never meant to be exposed. Attackers use it to leak secrets like keys or to defeat memory-protection defences. Remediation is validating indices and lengths before every read.

General guidance for the out-of-bounds read 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
Affected:>= 5.11.0, < 5.11.20>= 5.12.0, < 5.12.3

CVSS 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
High
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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 · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.11.20 / 5.12.3 or later
Fixed in 5.11.205.12.3
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

5.11.20 or 5.12.3 (or later stable release)

  1. Upgrade Linux kernel to version 5.11.20 or later within the 5.11.x branch
  2. Alternatively, upgrade Linux kernel to version 5.12.3 or later within the 5.12.x branch
  3. After kernel upgrade, reboot the system to load the fixed kernel
  4. Verify the running kernel version with 'uname -r' to confirm the fix is active
Caveat Kernel upgrade requires system reboot; ensure application compatibility with newer kernel version before upgrading

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $3,200. Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-46954 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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