CVE & CISA-KEV Catalog

CVE-2021-47350

MEDIUM
5.5
CVSS v3
NVD

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc/mm: Fix lockup on kernel exec fault The powerpc kernel is not prepared to handle exec faults from kernel. Especially, the function is_exec_fault() will return 'false' when an exec fault is taken by kernel, because the check is based on reading current->thread.regs->trap which contains the trap from user. For instance, when provoking a LKDTM EXEC_USERSPACE test, current->thread.regs->trap is set to SYSCALL trap (0xc00), and the fault taken by the kernel is not seen as an exec fault by set_access_flags_filter(). Commit d7df2443cd5f ("powerpc/mm: Fix spurious segfaults on radix with autonuma") made it clear and handled it properly. But later on commit d3ca587404b3 ("powerpc/mm: Fix reporting of kernel execute faults") removed that handling, introducing test based on error_code. And here is the problem, because on the 603 all upper bits of SRR1 get cleared when the TLB instruction miss handler bails out to ISI. Until commit cbd7e6ca0210 ("powerpc/fault: Avoid heavy search_exception_tables() verification"), an exec fault from kernel at a userspace address was indirectly caught by the lack of entry for that address in the exception tables. But after that commit the kernel mainly relies on KUAP or on core mm handling to catch wrong user accesses. Here the access is not wrong, so mm handles it. It is a minor fault because PAGE_EXEC is not set, set_access_flags_filter() should set PAGE_EXEC and voila. But as is_exec_fault() returns false as explained in the beginning, set_access_flags_filter() bails out without setting PAGE_EXEC flag, which leads to a forever minor exec fault. As the kernel is not prepared to handle such exec faults, the thing to do is to fire in bad_kernel_fault() for any exec fault taken by the kernel, as it was prior to commit d3ca587404b3.

How to fix

Remediation Available
linuxDebian
Fixed in:5.10.70-1CVE-2021-47350
Fixed in:5.14.6-1CVE-2021-47350
Fixed in:5.14.6-1CVE-2021-47350
Fixed in:5.14.6-1CVE-2021-47350

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

0.18%probability of exploitation in 30 days
8thpercentile

Low risk: more likely to be exploited than 8% of all known CVEs.

References

Related Vulnerabilities

Other CWE-667 vulnerabilities, ordered by exploit likelihood. View all

CVESeverityCVSSEPSSExploitedFix
CVE-2019-10072High7.573%-Fix
CVE-2002-1850High7.517%-Fix
CVE-2009-2699High7.514%-Fix
CVE-2004-0174High7.512%--
CVE-2009-4272High7.511%--
CVE-2020-24606High8.65.2%-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 2025-04-02.