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Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2021-47454

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-05-22
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.10.76 / 5.13 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
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: powerpc/smp: do not decrement idle task preempt count in CPU offline With PREEMPT_COUNT=y, when a CPU is offlined and then onlined again, we get: BUG: scheduling while atomic: swapper/1/0/0x00000000 no locks held by swapper/1/0. CPU: 1 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/1 Not tainted 5.15.0-rc2+ #100 Call Trace: dump_stack_lvl+0xac/0x108 __schedule_bug+0xac/0xe0 __schedule+0xcf8/0x10d0 schedule_idle+0x3c/0x70 do_idle+0x2d8/0x4a0 cpu_startup_entry+0x38/0x40 start_secondary+0x2ec/0x3a0 start_secondary_prolog+0x10/0x14 This is because powerpc's arch_cpu_idle_dead() decrements the idle task's preempt count, for reasons explained in commit a7c2bb8279d2 ("powerpc: Re-enable preemption before cpu_die()"), specifically "start_secondary() expects a preempt_count() of 0." However, since commit 2c669ef6979c ("powerpc/preempt: Don't touch the idle task's preempt_count during hotplug") and commit f1a0a376ca0c ("sched/core: Initialize the idle task with preemption disabled"), that justification no longer holds. The idle task isn't supposed to re-enable preemption, so remove the vestigial preempt_enable() from the CPU offline path. Tested with pseries and powernv in qemu, and pseries on PowerVM.

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

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

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:>= 5.10.50, < 5.10.76>= 5.12.17, < 5.13>= 5.13.2, < 5.14.15= 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
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 · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.10.76 / 5.13 / 5.14.15 or later
Fixed in 5.10.765.135.14.15
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

5.10.76, 5.13, 5.14.15, or 5.16+

  1. Upgrade the Linux kernel to a fixed version that includes the patch from commit 3ea0b497a7a2fff6a4b7090310c9f52c91975934

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 $1,600. 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-2021-47454 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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