CVE & CISA-KEV Catalog

CVE-2021-46933

MEDIUM
5.5
CVSS v3
NVD

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: usb: gadget: f_fs: Clear ffs_eventfd in ffs_data_clear. ffs_data_clear is indirectly called from both ffs_fs_kill_sb and ffs_ep0_release, so it ends up being called twice when userland closes ep0 and then unmounts f_fs. If userland provided an eventfd along with function's USB descriptors, it ends up calling eventfd_ctx_put as many times, causing a refcount underflow. NULL-ify ffs_eventfd to prevent these extraneous eventfd_ctx_put calls. Also, set epfiles to NULL right after de-allocating it, for readability. For completeness, ffs_data_clear actually ends up being called thrice, the last call being before the whole ffs structure gets freed, so when this specific sequence happens there is a second underflow happening (but not being reported): /sys/kernel/debug/tracing# modprobe usb_f_fs /sys/kernel/debug/tracing# echo ffs_data_clear > set_ftrace_filter /sys/kernel/debug/tracing# echo function > current_tracer /sys/kernel/debug/tracing# echo 1 > tracing_on (setup gadget, run and kill function userland process, teardown gadget) /sys/kernel/debug/tracing# echo 0 > tracing_on /sys/kernel/debug/tracing# cat trace smartcard-openp-436 [000] ..... 1946.208786: ffs_data_clear <-ffs_data_closed smartcard-openp-431 [000] ..... 1946.279147: ffs_data_clear <-ffs_data_closed smartcard-openp-431 [000] .n... 1946.905512: ffs_data_clear <-ffs_data_put Warning output corresponding to above trace: [ 1946.284139] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 431 at lib/refcount.c:28 refcount_warn_saturate+0x110/0x15c [ 1946.293094] refcount_t: underflow; use-after-free. [ 1946.298164] Modules linked in: usb_f_ncm(E) u_ether(E) usb_f_fs(E) hci_uart(E) btqca(E) btrtl(E) btbcm(E) btintel(E) bluetooth(E) nls_ascii(E) nls_cp437(E) vfat(E) fat(E) bcm2835_v4l2(CE) bcm2835_mmal_vchiq(CE) videobuf2_vmalloc(E) videobuf2_memops(E) sha512_generic(E) videobuf2_v4l2(E) sha512_arm(E) videobuf2_common(E) videodev(E) cpufreq_dt(E) snd_bcm2835(CE) brcmfmac(E) mc(E) vc4(E) ctr(E) brcmutil(E) snd_soc_core(E) snd_pcm_dmaengine(E) drbg(E) snd_pcm(E) snd_timer(E) snd(E) soundcore(E) drm_kms_helper(E) cec(E) ansi_cprng(E) rc_core(E) syscopyarea(E) raspberrypi_cpufreq(E) sysfillrect(E) sysimgblt(E) cfg80211(E) max17040_battery(OE) raspberrypi_hwmon(E) fb_sys_fops(E) regmap_i2c(E) ecdh_generic(E) rfkill(E) ecc(E) bcm2835_rng(E) rng_core(E) vchiq(CE) leds_gpio(E) libcomposite(E) fuse(E) configfs(E) ip_tables(E) x_tables(E) autofs4(E) ext4(E) crc16(E) mbcache(E) jbd2(E) crc32c_generic(E) sdhci_iproc(E) sdhci_pltfm(E) sdhci(E) [ 1946.399633] CPU: 0 PID: 431 Comm: smartcard-openp Tainted: G C OE 5.15.0-1-rpi #1 Debian 5.15.3-1 [ 1946.417950] Hardware name: BCM2835 [ 1946.425442] Backtrace: [ 1946.432048] [<c08d60a0>] (dump_backtrace) from [<c08d62ec>] (show_stack+0x20/0x24) [ 1946.448226] r7:00000009 r6:0000001c r5:c04a948c r4:c0a64e2c [ 1946.458412] [<c08d62cc>] (show_stack) from [<c08d9ae0>] (dump_stack+0x28/0x30) [ 1946.470380] [<c08d9ab8>] (dump_stack) from [<c0123500>] (__warn+0xe8/0x154) [ 1946.482067] r5:c04a948c r4:c0a71dc8 [ 1946.490184] [<c0123418>] (__warn) from [<c08d6948>] (warn_slowpath_fmt+0xa0/0xe4) [ 1946.506758] r7:00000009 r6:0000001c r5:c0a71dc8 r4:c0a71e04 [ 1946.517070] [<c08d68ac>] (warn_slowpath_fmt) from [<c04a948c>] (refcount_warn_saturate+0x110/0x15c) [ 1946.535309] r8:c0100224 r7:c0dfcb84 r6:ffffffff r5:c3b84c00 r4:c24a17c0 [ 1946.546708] [<c04a937c>] (refcount_warn_saturate) from [<c0380134>] (eventfd_ctx_put+0x48/0x74) [ 1946.564476] [<c03800ec>] (eventfd_ctx_put) from [<bf5464e8>] (ffs_data_clear+0xd0/0x118 [usb_f_fs]) [ 1946.582664] r5:c3b84c00 r4:c2695b00 [ 1946.590668] [<bf546418>] (ffs_data_clear [usb_f_fs]) from [<bf547cc0>] (ffs_data_closed+0x9c/0x150 [usb_f_fs]) [ 1946.609608] r5:bf54d014 r4:c2695b00 [ 1946.617522] [<bf547c24>] (ffs_data_closed [usb_f_fs]) from [<bf547da0>] (ffs_fs_kill_sb+0x2c/0x30 [usb_f_fs]) [ 1946.636217] r7:c0dfcb ---truncated---

How to fix

Remediation Available
linuxDebian
Fixed in:5.10.92-1CVE-2021-46933
Fixed in:5.15.15-1CVE-2021-46933
Fixed in:5.15.15-1CVE-2021-46933
Fixed in:5.15.15-1CVE-2021-46933
linuxUbuntu
Fixed in:4.4.0-257.291USN-6938-1
linux-awsUbuntu
Fixed in:4.4.0-1134.140USN-6938-1
Fixed in:4.4.0-1172.187USN-6938-1
linux-image-4.4.0-1134-awsUbuntu
Fixed in:4.4.0-1134.140USN-6938-1
linux-image-4.4.0-1135-kvmUbuntu
Fixed in:4.4.0-1135.145USN-6938-1
linux-image-4.4.0-1172-awsUbuntu
Fixed in:4.4.0-1172.187USN-6938-1
linux-image-4.4.0-257-genericUbuntu
Fixed in:4.4.0-257.291~14.04.1USN-6938-1
Fixed in:4.4.0-257.291USN-6938-1
linux-image-4.4.0-257-lowlatencyUbuntu
Fixed in:4.4.0-257.291~14.04.1USN-6938-1
Fixed in:4.4.0-257.291USN-6938-1
linux-image-awsUbuntu
Fixed in:4.4.0.1134.131USN-6938-1
Fixed in:4.4.0.1172.176USN-6938-1
linux-image-genericUbuntu
Fixed in:4.4.0.257.263USN-6938-1
linux-image-generic-lts-xenialUbuntu
Fixed in:4.4.0.257.291~14.04.1USN-6938-1
Fixed in:4.4.0.257.263USN-6938-1
linux-image-kvmUbuntu
Fixed in:4.4.0.1135.132USN-6938-1
linux-image-lowlatencyUbuntu
Fixed in:4.4.0.257.263USN-6938-1
linux-image-lowlatency-lts-xenialUbuntu
Fixed in:4.4.0.257.291~14.04.1USN-6938-1
Fixed in:4.4.0.257.263USN-6938-1
linux-image-virtualUbuntu
Fixed in:4.4.0.257.263USN-6938-1
linux-image-virtual-lts-xenialUbuntu
Fixed in:4.4.0.257.291~14.04.1USN-6938-1
Fixed in:4.4.0.257.263USN-6938-1
linux-kvmUbuntu
Fixed in:4.4.0-1135.145USN-6938-1
linux-lts-xenialUbuntu
Fixed in:4.4.0-257.291~14.04.1USN-6938-1

Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.

CVSS v3 Vector

Exploitability

Attack VectorLocal
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged

Impact

ConfidentialityNone
IntegrityNone
AvailabilityHigh

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Exploit Intelligence

0.23%probability of exploitation in 30 days
14thpercentile

Low risk: more likely to be exploited than 14% of all known CVEs.

References

Related Vulnerabilities

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CVE-2010-3962High8.197%KEV-
CVE-2015-0313Critical9.896%KEVFix
CVE-2017-9798High7.595%-Fix
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This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2025-04-22.