CVE-2021-47632

MEDIUM EPSS 6.8%
Published Feb 26, 20251y ago · Modified Jun 17, 20261w ago
5.5 CVSS 3.1
Medium
Find Similar
Published Feb 26, 2025 1y ago
Last Modified Jun 17, 2026 1w ago

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc/set_memory: Avoid spinlock recursion in change_page_attr() Commit 1f9ad21c3b38 ("powerpc/mm: Implement set_memory() routines") included a spin_lock() to change_page_attr() in order to safely perform the three step operations. But then commit 9f7853d7609d ("powerpc/mm: Fix set_memory_*() against concurrent accesses") modify it to use pte_update() and do the operation safely against concurrent access. In the meantime, Maxime reported some spinlock recursion. [ 15.351649] BUG: spinlock recursion on CPU#0, kworker/0:2/217 [ 15.357540] lock: init_mm+0x3c/0x420, .magic: dead4ead, .owner: kworker/0:2/217, .owner_cpu: 0 [ 15.366563] CPU: 0 PID: 217 Comm: kworker/0:2 Not tainted 5.15.0+ #523 [ 15.373350] Workqueue: events do_free_init [ 15.377615] Call Trace: [ 15.380232] [e4105ac0] [800946a4] do_raw_spin_lock+0xf8/0x120 (unreliable) [ 15.387340] [e4105ae0] [8001f4ec] change_page_attr+0x40/0x1d4 [ 15.393413] [e4105b10] [801424e0] __apply_to_page_range+0x164/0x310 [ 15.400009] [e4105b60] [80169620] free_pcp_prepare+0x1e4/0x4a0 [ 15.406045] [e4105ba0] [8016c5a0] free_unref_page+0x40/0x2b8 [ 15.411979] [e4105be0] [8018724c] kasan_depopulate_vmalloc_pte+0x6c/0x94 [ 15.418989] [e4105c00] [801424e0] __apply_to_page_range+0x164/0x310 [ 15.425451] [e4105c50] [80187834] kasan_release_vmalloc+0xbc/0x134 [ 15.431898] [e4105c70] [8015f7a8] __purge_vmap_area_lazy+0x4e4/0xdd8 [ 15.438560] [e4105d30] [80160d10] _vm_unmap_aliases.part.0+0x17c/0x24c [ 15.445283] [e4105d60] [801642d0] __vunmap+0x2f0/0x5c8 [ 15.450684] [e4105db0] [800e32d0] do_free_init+0x68/0x94 [ 15.456181] [e4105dd0] [8005d094] process_one_work+0x4bc/0x7b8 [ 15.462283] [e4105e90] [8005d614] worker_thread+0x284/0x6e8 [ 15.468227] [e4105f00] [8006aaec] kthread+0x1f0/0x210 [ 15.473489] [e4105f40] [80017148] ret_from_kernel_thread+0x14/0x1c Remove the read / modify / write sequence to make the operation atomic and remove the spin_lock() in change_page_attr(). To do the operation atomically, we can't use pte modification helpers anymore. Because all platforms have different combination of bits, it is not easy to use those bits directly. But all have the _PAGE_KERNEL_{RO/ROX/RW/RWX} set of flags. All we need it to compare two sets to know which bits are set or cleared. For instance, by comparing _PAGE_KERNEL_ROX and _PAGE_KERNEL_RO you know which bit gets cleared and which bit get set when changing exec permission.

CVSS Details

Base Score
5.5
Exploitability
1.8
Impact
3.6
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack Vector Local
Attack Complexity Low
Privileges Required Low
User Interaction None
Scope Unchanged
Confidentiality None
Integrity None
Availability High

Threat Intelligence

EPSS Exploit Probability
6.8% percentile
Exploit & Patch Status
No Known Exploit
Patch Available

Weaknesses 1

CWE-667

Affected Products 3

VendorProductVersionRange
linuxlinux_kernel* <5.15.34
linuxlinux_kernel*≥5.16  –  <5.16.20
linuxlinux_kernel*≥5.17  –  <5.17.3

References 4

  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6def4eaf0391f24be541633a954c0e4876858b1e
    Patch
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6ebe5ca2cbe438a688f2ae238ef5a0b0b5f3468a
    Patch
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/96917107e67846f1d959ed03be281048efad14c5
    Patch
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a4c182ecf33584b9b2d1aa9dad073014a504c01f
    Patch

Remediation

  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6def4eaf0391f24be541633a954c0e4876858b1e
    Patch
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6ebe5ca2cbe438a688f2ae238ef5a0b0b5f3468a
    Patch
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/96917107e67846f1d959ed03be281048efad14c5
    Patch
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a4c182ecf33584b9b2d1aa9dad073014a504c01f
    Patch