Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2021-46992
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: netfilter: nftables: avoid overflows in nft_hash_buckets() Number of buckets being stored in 32bit variables, we have to ensure that no overflows occur in nft_hash_buckets() syzbot injected a size == 0x40000000 and reported: UBSAN: shift-out-of-bounds in ./include/linux/log2.h:57:13 shift exponent 64 is too large for 64-bit type 'long unsigned int' CPU: 1 PID: 29539 Comm: syz-executor.4 Not tainted 5.12.0-rc7-syzkaller #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 01/01/2011 Call Trace: __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:79 [inline] dump_stack+0x141/0x1d7 lib/dump_stack.c:120 ubsan_epilogue+0xb/0x5a lib/ubsan.c:148 __ubsan_handle_shift_out_of_bounds.cold+0xb1/0x181 lib/ubsan.c:327 __roundup_pow_of_two include/linux/log2.h:57 [inline] nft_hash_buckets net/netfilter/nft_set_hash.c:411 [inline] nft_hash_estimate.cold+0x19/0x1e net/netfilter/nft_set_hash.c:652 nft_select_set_ops net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c:3586 [inline] nf_tables_newset+0xe62/0x3110 net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c:4322 nfnetlink_rcv_batch+0xa09/0x24b0 net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:488 nfnetlink_rcv_skb_batch net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:612 [inline] nfnetlink_rcv+0x3af/0x420 net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:630 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1312 [inline] netlink_unicast+0x533/0x7d0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1338 netlink_sendmsg+0x856/0xd90 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1927 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:654 [inline] sock_sendmsg+0xcf/0x120 net/socket.c:674 ____sys_sendmsg+0x6e8/0x810 net/socket.c:2350 ___sys_sendmsg+0xf3/0x170 net/socket.c:2404 __sys_sendmsg+0xe5/0x1b0 net/socket.c:2433 do_syscall_64+0x2d/0x70 arch/x86/entry/common.c:46
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 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
>= 4.9, < 4.14.233>= 4.15, < 4.19.191>= 4.20, < 5.4.120>= 5.5, < 5.10.38>= 5.11, < 5.11.22>= 5.12, < 5.12.5CVSS 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 · scoped4.14.2334.19.1915.4.120
5.10.38 or later (or 5.4.120+, 4.19.191+, 4.14.233+ depending on your kernel branch)
- Identify your current kernel version using 'uname -r' or 'cat /proc/version'
- Determine which kernel branch you are running (e.g., 4.14.x, 4.19.x, 5.4.x, 5.10.x)
- For kernel 4.14.x: upgrade to version 4.14.233 or later
- For kernel 4.19.x: upgrade to version 4.19.191 or later
- For kernel 5.4.x: upgrade to version 5.4.120 or later
- For kernel 5.10.x: upgrade to version 5.10.38 or later
- After kernel upgrade, verify the fix by running 'modinfo nf_tables' and confirm the kernel version is at or above the fixed version for your branch
- Reboot into the new kernel and verify the system boots 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-2021-46992 — 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-2021-46992 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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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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