Vulnerability · Published Feb 27, 2024 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2021-46961irqchip/gic-v3: Do not enable irqs when handling spurious interrups

Medium 5.5

In plain English

A medium-severity security flaw in Linux from Linux. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 15% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)5.5Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 85.4% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: irqchip/gic-v3: Do not enable irqs when handling spurious interrups We triggered the following error while running our 4.19 kernel with the pseudo-NMI patches backported to it: [ 14.816231] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 14.816231] kernel BUG at irq.c:99! [ 14.816232] Internal error: Oops - BUG: 0 [#1] SMP [ 14.816232] Process swapper/0 (pid: 0, stack limit = 0x(____ptrval____)) [ 14.816233] CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G O 4.19.95.aarch64 #14 [ 14.816233] Hardware name: evb (DT) [ 14.816234] pstate: 80400085 (Nzcv daIf +PAN -UAO) [ 14.816234] pc : asm_nmi_enter+0x94/0x98 [ 14.816235] lr : asm_nmi_enter+0x18/0x98 [ 14.816235] sp : ffff000008003c50 [ 14.816235] pmr_save: 00000070 [ 14.816237] x29: ffff000008003c50 x28: ffff0000095f56c0 [ 14.816238] x27: 0000000000000000 x26: ffff000008004000 [ 14.816239] x25: 00000000015e0000 x24: ffff8008fb916000 [ 14.816240] x23: 0000000020400005 x22: ffff0000080817cc [ 14.816241] x21: ffff000008003da0 x20: 0000000000000060 [ 14.816242] x19: 00000000000003ff x18: ffffffffffffffff [ 14.816243] x17: 0000000000000008 x16: 003d090000000000 [ 14.816244] x15: ffff0000095ea6c8 x14: ffff8008fff5ab40 [ 14.816244] x13: ffff8008fff58b9d x12: 0000000000000000 [ 14.816245] x11: ffff000008c8a200 x10: 000000008e31fca5 [ 14.816246] x9 : ffff000008c8a208 x8 : 000000000000000f [ 14.816247] x7 : 0000000000000004 x6 : ffff8008fff58b9e [ 14.816248] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000080000000 [ 14.816249] x3 : 0000000000000000 x2 : 0000000080000000 [ 14.816250] x1 : 0000000000120000 x0 : ffff0000095f56c0 [ 14.816251] Call trace: [ 14.816251] asm_nmi_enter+0x94/0x98 [ 14.816251] el1_irq+0x8c/0x180 (IRQ C) [ 14.816252] gic_handle_irq+0xbc/0x2e4 [ 14.816252] el1_irq+0xcc/0x180 (IRQ B) [ 14.816253] arch_timer_handler_virt+0x38/0x58 [ 14.816253] handle_percpu_devid_irq+0x90/0x240 [ 14.816253] generic_handle_irq+0x34/0x50 [ 14.816254] __handle_domain_irq+0x68/0xc0 [ 14.816254] gic_handle_irq+0xf8/0x2e4 [ 14.816255] el1_irq+0xcc/0x180 (IRQ A) [ 14.816255] arch_cpu_idle+0x34/0x1c8 [ 14.816255] default_idle_call+0x24/0x44 [ 14.816256] do_idle+0x1d0/0x2c8 [ 14.816256] cpu_startup_entry+0x28/0x30 [ 14.816256] rest_init+0xb8/0xc8 [ 14.816257] start_kernel+0x4c8/0x4f4 [ 14.816257] Code: 940587f1 d5384100 b9401001 36a7fd01 (d4210000) [ 14.816258] Modules linked in: start_dp(O) smeth(O) [ 15.103092] ---[ end trace 701753956cb14aa8 ]--- [ 15.103093] Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt [ 15.103099] SMP: stopping secondary CPUs [ 15.103100] Kernel Offset: disabled [ 15.103100] CPU features: 0x36,a2400218 [ 15.103100] Memory Limit: none which is cause by a 'BUG_ON(in_nmi())' in nmi_enter(). From the call trace, we can find three interrupts (noted A, B, C above): interrupt (A) is preempted by (B), which is further interrupted by (C). Subsequent investigations show that (B) results in nmi_enter() being called, but that it actually is a spurious interrupt. Furthermore, interrupts are reenabled in the context of (B), and (C) fires with NMI priority. We end-up with a nested NMI situation, something we definitely do not want to (and cannot) handle. The bug here is that spurious interrupts should never result in any state change, and we should just return to the interrupted context. Moving the handling of spurious interrupts as early as possible in the GICv3 handler fixes this issue. [maz: rewrote commit message, corrected Fixes: tag]

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12linux5.10.38-1DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46961
Debian:13linux5.10.38-1DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46961
Debian:14linux5.10.38-1DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux 3f1f3234bc2db1c16b9818b9a15a5d58ad45251c – before e7ea8e46e3b777be26aa855fe07778c415f249263f1f3234bc2db1c16b9818b9a15a5d58ad45251c – before 7be4db5c2b59fa77071c93ca4329876fb97772023f1f3234bc2db1c16b9818b9a15a5d58ad45251c – before ea817ac1014c04f47885532b55f5d0898deadfba3f1f3234bc2db1c16b9818b9a15a5d58ad45251c – before 3f72d3709f53af72835af7dc8b15ba61611a0e363f1f3234bc2db1c16b9818b9a15a5d58ad45251c – before a97709f563a078e259bf0861cd259aa60332890a
Linux Linux 5.1

References