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Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2021-47441

HIGH · 7.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-05-22
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.4.155 / 5.10.75 or later.
See remediation →
75/100
Remediation priority · High
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: mlxsw: thermal: Fix out-of-bounds memory accesses Currently, mlxsw allows cooling states to be set above the maximum cooling state supported by the driver: # cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone2/cdev0/type mlxsw_fan # cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone2/cdev0/max_state 10 # echo 18 > /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone2/cdev0/cur_state # echo $? 0 This results in out-of-bounds memory accesses when thermal state transition statistics are enabled (CONFIG_THERMAL_STATISTICS=y), as the transition table is accessed with a too large index (state) [1]. According to the thermal maintainer, it is the responsibility of the driver to reject such operations [2]. Therefore, return an error when the state to be set exceeds the maximum cooling state supported by the driver. To avoid dead code, as suggested by the thermal maintainer [3], partially revert commit a421ce088ac8 ("mlxsw: core: Extend cooling device with cooling levels") that tried to interpret these invalid cooling states (above the maximum) in a special way. The cooling levels array is not removed in order to prevent the fans going below 20% PWM, which would cause them to get stuck at 0% PWM. [1] BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in thermal_cooling_device_stats_update+0x271/0x290 Read of size 4 at addr ffff8881052f7bf8 by task kworker/0:0/5 CPU: 0 PID: 5 Comm: kworker/0:0 Not tainted 5.15.0-rc3-custom-45935-gce1adf704b14 #122 Hardware name: Mellanox Technologies Ltd. "MSN2410-CB2FO"/"SA000874", BIOS 4.6.5 03/08/2016 Workqueue: events_freezable_power_ thermal_zone_device_check Call Trace: dump_stack_lvl+0x8b/0xb3 print_address_description.constprop.0+0x1f/0x140 kasan_report.cold+0x7f/0x11b thermal_cooling_device_stats_update+0x271/0x290 __thermal_cdev_update+0x15e/0x4e0 thermal_cdev_update+0x9f/0xe0 step_wise_throttle+0x770/0xee0 thermal_zone_device_update+0x3f6/0xdf0 process_one_work+0xa42/0x1770 worker_thread+0x62f/0x13e0 kthread+0x3ee/0x4e0 ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30 Allocated by task 1: kasan_save_stack+0x1b/0x40 __kasan_kmalloc+0x7c/0x90 thermal_cooling_device_setup_sysfs+0x153/0x2c0 __thermal_cooling_device_register.part.0+0x25b/0x9c0 thermal_cooling_device_register+0xb3/0x100 mlxsw_thermal_init+0x5c5/0x7e0 __mlxsw_core_bus_device_register+0xcb3/0x19c0 mlxsw_core_bus_device_register+0x56/0xb0 mlxsw_pci_probe+0x54f/0x710 local_pci_probe+0xc6/0x170 pci_device_probe+0x2b2/0x4d0 really_probe+0x293/0xd10 __driver_probe_device+0x2af/0x440 driver_probe_device+0x51/0x1e0 __driver_attach+0x21b/0x530 bus_for_each_dev+0x14c/0x1d0 bus_add_driver+0x3ac/0x650 driver_register+0x241/0x3d0 mlxsw_sp_module_init+0xa2/0x174 do_one_initcall+0xee/0x5f0 kernel_init_freeable+0x45a/0x4de kernel_init+0x1f/0x210 ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30 The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff8881052f7800 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-1k of size 1024 The buggy address is located 1016 bytes inside of 1024-byte region [ffff8881052f7800, ffff8881052f7c00) The buggy address belongs to the page: page:0000000052355272 refcount:1 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x1052f0 head:0000000052355272 order:3 compound_mapcount:0 compound_pincount:0 flags: 0x200000000010200(slab|head|node=0|zone=2) raw: 0200000000010200 ffffea0005034800 0000000300000003 ffff888100041dc0 raw: 0000000000000000 0000000000100010 00000001ffffffff 0000000000000000 page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected Memory state around the buggy address: ffff8881052f7a80: 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc ffff8881052f7b00: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc >ffff8881052f7b80: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc ^ ffff8881052f7c00: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc ffff8881052f7c80: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc [2] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pm/9aca37cb-1629-5c67- ---truncated---

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-787

The 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
Affected:>= 4.10, < 5.4.155>= 5.5, < 5.10.75>= 5.11, < 5.14.14= 5.15

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
Low
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/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 5.4.155 / 5.10.75 / 5.14.14 or later
Fixed in 5.4.1555.10.755.14.14
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

5.4.155+, 5.10.75+, 5.14.14+, or 5.15.2+ depending on your current branch

  1. Identify the currently running Linux kernel version using `uname -r`
  2. Check which version range your current kernel falls into (>= 4.10 and < 5.4.155, >= 5.5 and < 5.10.75, >= 5.11 and < 5.14.14, or = 5.15)
  3. Upgrade the Linux kernel to a fixed version: for 4.10-5.4.x kernels upgrade to 5.4.155 or later; for 5.5-5.10.x kernels upgrade to 5.10.75 or later; for 5.11-5.14.x kernels upgrade to 5.14.14 or later; for 5.15.x kernels upgrade to 5.15.2 or later
  4. Reboot the system to load the patched kernel
  5. Verify the fix is applied by checking that setting a cooling state above the maximum now returns an error
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require rebuilding third-party modules and carry standard upgrade risks; ensure compatibility with your system components before upgrading

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

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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

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