Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2021-47460
A fix is available.
Upgrade to 4.9.288 / 4.14.253 or later.
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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 · uneditedIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ocfs2: fix data corruption after conversion from inline format Commit 6dbf7bb55598 ("fs: Don't invalidate page buffers in block_write_full_page()") uncovered a latent bug in ocfs2 conversion from inline inode format to a normal inode format. The code in ocfs2_convert_inline_data_to_extents() attempts to zero out the whole cluster allocated for file data by grabbing, zeroing, and dirtying all pages covering this cluster. However these pages are beyond i_size, thus writeback code generally ignores these dirty pages and no blocks were ever actually zeroed on the disk. This oversight was fixed by commit 693c241a5f6a ("ocfs2: No need to zero pages past i_size.") for standard ocfs2 write path, inline conversion path was apparently forgotten; the commit log also has a reasoning why the zeroing actually is not needed. After commit 6dbf7bb55598, things became worse as writeback code stopped invalidating buffers on pages beyond i_size and thus these pages end up with clean PageDirty bit but with buffers attached to these pages being still dirty. So when a file is converted from inline format, then writeback triggers, and then the file is grown so that these pages become valid, the invalid dirtiness state is preserved, mark_buffer_dirty() does nothing on these pages (buffers are already dirty) but page is never written back because it is clean. So data written to these pages is lost once pages are reclaimed. Simple reproducer for the problem is: xfs_io -f -c "pwrite 0 2000" -c "pwrite 2000 2000" -c "fsync" \ -c "pwrite 4000 2000" ocfs2_file After unmounting and mounting the fs again, you can observe that end of 'ocfs2_file' has lost its contents. Fix the problem by not doing the pointless zeroing during conversion from inline format similarly as in the standard write path. [[email protected]: fix whitespace, per Joseph]
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 analysisA 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:
>= 4.9.242, < 4.9.288>= 4.14.204, < 4.14.253>= 4.19.155, < 4.19.214>= 5.4.75, < 5.4.156>= 5.9.5, < 5.10.76>= 5.11, < 5.14.15= 5.15CVSS 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 4.9.288 / 4.14.253 / 4.19.214 or later
Fixed in
4.9.2884.14.2534.19.214
Vendor patch
git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix
High confidence
Linux kernel >= 4.9.288, >= 4.14.253, >= 4.19.214, or >= 5.4.156
- Upgrade the Linux kernel to a fixed version: 4.9.288 or later, 4.14.253 or later, 4.19.214 or later, or 5.4.156 or later
Caveat Standard kernel upgrade risks apply (verify hardware driver compatibility and ensure all required modules are available)
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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-47460 in production — separate from our analysis above.
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