Vulnerability · Published Mar 15, 2024 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2021-47119ext4: fix memory leak in ext4_fill_super

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 0.3% (higher than 17% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS NVD)5.5Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.3%top 83.3% 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: ext4: fix memory leak in ext4_fill_super Buffer head references must be released before calling kill_bdev(); otherwise the buffer head (and its page referenced by b_data) will not be freed by kill_bdev, and subsequently that bh will be leaked. If blocksizes differ, sb_set_blocksize() will kill current buffers and page cache by using kill_bdev(). And then super block will be reread again but using correct blocksize this time. sb_set_blocksize() didn't fully free superblock page and buffer head, and being busy, they were not freed and instead leaked. This can easily be reproduced by calling an infinite loop of: systemctl start <ext4_on_lvm>.mount, and systemctl stop <ext4_on_lvm>.mount ... since systemd creates a cgroup for each slice which it mounts, and the bh leak get amplified by a dying memory cgroup that also never gets freed, and memory consumption is much more easily noticed.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12linux5.10.46-1DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47119
Debian:13linux5.10.46-1DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47119
Debian:14linux5.10.46-1DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47119

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux ac27a0ec112a089f1a5102bc8dffc79c8c815571 – before 01d349a481f0591230300a9171330136f9159bcdac27a0ec112a089f1a5102bc8dffc79c8c815571 – before 1385b23396d511d5233b8b921ac3058b3f86a5e1ac27a0ec112a089f1a5102bc8dffc79c8c815571 – before afd09b617db3786b6ef3dc43e28fe728cfea84df
Linux Linux 2.6.19

References