Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2021-47282
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: spi: bcm2835: Fix out-of-bounds access with more than 4 slaves Commit 571e31fa60b3 ("spi: bcm2835: Cache CS register value for ->prepare_message()") limited the number of slaves to 3 at compile-time. The limitation was necessitated by a statically-sized array prepare_cs[] in the driver private data which contains a per-slave register value. The commit sought to enforce the limitation at run-time by setting the controller's num_chipselect to 3: Slaves with a higher chipselect are rejected by spi_add_device(). However the commit neglected that num_chipselect only limits the number of *native* chipselects. If GPIO chipselects are specified in the device tree for more than 3 slaves, num_chipselect is silently raised by of_spi_get_gpio_numbers() and the result are out-of-bounds accesses to the statically-sized array prepare_cs[]. As a bandaid fix which is backportable to stable, raise the number of allowed slaves to 24 (which "ought to be enough for anybody"), enforce the limitation on slave ->setup and revert num_chipselect to 3 (which is the number of native chipselects supported by the controller). An upcoming for-next commit will allow an arbitrary number of slaves.
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
>= 5.4, < 5.4.126>= 5.5, < 5.10.44>= 5.11, < 5.12.11= 5.13CVSS 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
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 · scoped5.4.1265.10.445.12.11
Upgrade to kernel 5.4.126+ (for 5.4.x branch), 5.10.44+ (for 5.5-5.10.x), 5.12.11+ (for 5.11-5.12.x), or the fixed 5.13.x release
- 1. Identify the currently running kernel version using `uname -r`
- 2. Determine the appropriate upgrade path based on your current kernel branch
- 3. For RHEL/CentOS systems: Update kernel package via `yum update kernel` or `dnf update kernel`
- 4. For Debian/Ubuntu systems: Update via `apt update && apt upgrade linux-image-generic`
- 5. For Amazon Linux: Update via `amazon-linux-update kernel`
- 6. Reboot the system to load the new kernel: `sudo reboot`
- 7. Verify the fix is applied by checking the kernel version matches or exceeds the fixed release (5.4.126, 5.10.44, 5.12.11, or the fixed 5.13.x release)
- 8. Alternatively, if your distribution backports this fix, apply the vendor-specific kernel update
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-2021-47282 — 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-2021-47282 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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