Vulnerability · Published Feb 27, 2024 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2021-46972ovl: fix leaked dentry

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 16% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS NVD)5.5Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 83.6% 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: ovl: fix leaked dentry Since commit 6815f479ca90 ("ovl: use only uppermetacopy state in ovl_lookup()"), overlayfs doesn't put temporary dentry when there is a metacopy error, which leads to dentry leaks when shutting down the related superblock: overlayfs: refusing to follow metacopy origin for (/file0) ... BUG: Dentry (____ptrval____){i=3f33,n=file3} still in use (1) [unmount of overlay overlay] ... WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 432 at umount_check.cold+0x107/0x14d CPU: 1 PID: 432 Comm: unmount-overlay Not tainted 5.12.0-rc5 #1 ... RIP: 0010:umount_check.cold+0x107/0x14d ... Call Trace: d_walk+0x28c/0x950 ? dentry_lru_isolate+0x2b0/0x2b0 ? __kasan_slab_free+0x12/0x20 do_one_tree+0x33/0x60 shrink_dcache_for_umount+0x78/0x1d0 generic_shutdown_super+0x70/0x440 kill_anon_super+0x3e/0x70 deactivate_locked_super+0xc4/0x160 deactivate_super+0xfa/0x140 cleanup_mnt+0x22e/0x370 __cleanup_mnt+0x1a/0x30 task_work_run+0x139/0x210 do_exit+0xb0c/0x2820 ? __kasan_check_read+0x1d/0x30 ? find_held_lock+0x35/0x160 ? lock_release+0x1b6/0x660 ? mm_update_next_owner+0xa20/0xa20 ? reacquire_held_locks+0x3f0/0x3f0 ? __sanitizer_cov_trace_const_cmp4+0x22/0x30 do_group_exit+0x135/0x380 __do_sys_exit_group.isra.0+0x20/0x20 __x64_sys_exit_group+0x3c/0x50 do_syscall_64+0x45/0x70 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae ... VFS: Busy inodes after unmount of overlay. Self-destruct in 5 seconds. Have a nice day... This fix has been tested with a syzkaller reproducer.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
AlmaLinux:8bpftool4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-abi-stablelists4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-core4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-cross-headers4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-debug4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-debug-core4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-debug-devel4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-debug-modules4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-debug-modules-extra4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-devel4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-doc4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-headers4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-modules4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-modules-extra4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt4.18.0-553.8.1.rt7.349.el8_10ALSA-2024:4352
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-core4.18.0-553.8.1.rt7.349.el8_10ALSA-2024:4352
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-debug4.18.0-553.8.1.rt7.349.el8_10ALSA-2024:4352
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-debug-core4.18.0-553.8.1.rt7.349.el8_10ALSA-2024:4352
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-debug-devel4.18.0-553.8.1.rt7.349.el8_10ALSA-2024:4352
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-debug-kvm4.18.0-553.8.1.rt7.349.el8_10ALSA-2024:4352
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-debug-modules4.18.0-553.8.1.rt7.349.el8_10ALSA-2024:4352
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-debug-modules-extra4.18.0-553.8.1.rt7.349.el8_10ALSA-2024:4352
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-devel4.18.0-553.8.1.rt7.349.el8_10ALSA-2024:4352
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-kvm4.18.0-553.8.1.rt7.349.el8_10ALSA-2024:4352
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-modules4.18.0-553.8.1.rt7.349.el8_10ALSA-2024:4352
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-modules-extra4.18.0-553.8.1.rt7.349.el8_10ALSA-2024:4352
AlmaLinux:8kernel-tools4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-tools-libs4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-tools-libs-devel4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-zfcpdump4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-zfcpdump-core4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-zfcpdump-devel4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-zfcpdump-modules4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8kernel-zfcpdump-modules-extra4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8perf4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
AlmaLinux:8python3-perf4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:4211
Debian:12linux5.10.38-1DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46972
Debian:13linux5.10.38-1DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46972
Debian:14linux5.10.38-1DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46972
Rocky Linux:8kernel0:4.18.0-553.8.1.el8_10RLSA-2024:4211
Rocky Linux:8kernel-rt0:4.18.0-553.8.1.rt7.349.el8_10RLSA-2024:4352
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-46972

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux 6815f479ca90ee7fd2e28b2a420f796b974155fe – before 71d58457a8afc650da5d3292a7f7029317654d956815f479ca90ee7fd2e28b2a420f796b974155fe – before cf3e3330bc5719fa9d658e3e2f596bde89344a946815f479ca90ee7fd2e28b2a420f796b974155fe – before d587cfaef72b1b6f4b2774827123bce91f497cc86815f479ca90ee7fd2e28b2a420f796b974155fe – before eaab1d45cdb4bb0c846bd23c3d666d5b90af7b41
Linux Linux 5.8

References