Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2021-47499

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-05-24
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 4.4.295 / 4.9.293 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: iio: accel: kxcjk-1013: Fix possible memory leak in probe and remove When ACPI type is ACPI_SMO8500, the data->dready_trig will not be set, the memory allocated by iio_triggered_buffer_setup() will not be freed, and cause memory leak as follows: unreferenced object 0xffff888009551400 (size 512): comm "i2c-SMO8500-125", pid 911, jiffies 4294911787 (age 83.852s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 e2 e5 c0 ff ff ff ff ........ ....... backtrace: [<0000000041ce75ee>] kmem_cache_alloc_trace+0x16d/0x360 [<000000000aeb17b0>] iio_kfifo_allocate+0x41/0x130 [kfifo_buf] [<000000004b40c1f5>] iio_triggered_buffer_setup_ext+0x2c/0x210 [industrialio_triggered_buffer] [<000000004375b15f>] kxcjk1013_probe+0x10c3/0x1d81 [kxcjk_1013] Fix it by remove data->dready_trig condition in probe and remove.

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-401

Allocated memory is never released on some path, so a long-running service or a repeatedly triggered request steadily consumes memory until performance degrades or the process crashes. Attackers exploit it by simply driving the leaking path. Remediation is pairing every allocation with a release and using ownership patterns or tooling to catch what leaks.

General guidance for the memory leak 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:>= 4.2, < 4.4.295>= 4.5, < 4.9.293>= 4.10, < 4.14.258>= 4.15, < 4.19.221>= 4.20, < 5.4.165>= 5.5, < 5.10.85>= 5.11, < 5.15.8= 5.16

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 4.4.295 / 4.9.293 / 4.14.258 or later
Fixed in 4.4.2954.9.2934.14.258
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to one of: 4.4.295, 4.9.293, 4.14.258, 4.19.221, or latest stable kernel (5.x+)

  1. Apply the vendor patch commit 14508fe13b1c578b3d2ba574f1d48b351975860c to the kernel source tree
  2. Rebuild the kxcjk_1013 kernel module or kernel image as appropriate
  3. Reboot or reload the module to activate the fix
Caveat Kernel updates may require rebuilding out-of-tree modules; ensure driver compatibility before upgrading

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

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-47499 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-47499 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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