Vulnerability · Published May 22, 2024 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2021-47491mm: khugepaged: skip huge page collapse for special files

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 11% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS NVD)5.5Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 88.8% 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: mm: khugepaged: skip huge page collapse for special files The read-only THP for filesystems will collapse THP for files opened readonly and mapped with VM_EXEC. The intended usecase is to avoid TLB misses for large text segments. But it doesn't restrict the file types so a THP could be collapsed for a non-regular file, for example, block device, if it is opened readonly and mapped with EXEC permission. This may cause bugs, like [1] and [2]. This is definitely not the intended usecase, so just collapse THP for regular files in order to close the attack surface. [shy828301@gmail.com: fix vm_file check [3]]

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
AlmaLinux:8bpftool4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-abi-stablelists4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-core4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-cross-headers4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-debug4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-debug-core4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-debug-devel4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-debug-modules4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-debug-modules-extra4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-devel4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-doc4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-headers4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-modules4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-modules-extra4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt4.18.0-553.16.1.rt7.357.el8_10ALSA-2024:5102
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-core4.18.0-553.16.1.rt7.357.el8_10ALSA-2024:5102
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-debug4.18.0-553.16.1.rt7.357.el8_10ALSA-2024:5102
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-debug-core4.18.0-553.16.1.rt7.357.el8_10ALSA-2024:5102
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-debug-devel4.18.0-553.16.1.rt7.357.el8_10ALSA-2024:5102
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-debug-kvm4.18.0-553.16.1.rt7.357.el8_10ALSA-2024:5102
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-debug-modules4.18.0-553.16.1.rt7.357.el8_10ALSA-2024:5102
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-debug-modules-extra4.18.0-553.16.1.rt7.357.el8_10ALSA-2024:5102
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-devel4.18.0-553.16.1.rt7.357.el8_10ALSA-2024:5102
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-kvm4.18.0-553.16.1.rt7.357.el8_10ALSA-2024:5102
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-modules4.18.0-553.16.1.rt7.357.el8_10ALSA-2024:5102
AlmaLinux:8kernel-rt-modules-extra4.18.0-553.16.1.rt7.357.el8_10ALSA-2024:5102
AlmaLinux:8kernel-tools4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-tools-libs4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-tools-libs-devel4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-zfcpdump4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-zfcpdump-core4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-zfcpdump-devel4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-zfcpdump-modules4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8kernel-zfcpdump-modules-extra4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8perf4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
AlmaLinux:8python3-perf4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10ALSA-2024:5101
Debian:12linux5.15.3-1DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47491
Debian:13linux5.15.3-1DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47491
Debian:14linux5.15.3-1DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47491
Rocky Linux:8kernel0:4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10RLSA-2024:5101
Rocky Linux:8kernel0:4.18.0-553.16.1.el8_10.cloud.0.1RXSA-2024:5101
Rocky Linux:8kernel-rt0:4.18.0-553.16.1.rt7.357.el8_10RLSA-2024:5102
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2021-47491

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux 99cb0dbd47a15d395bf3faa78dc122bc5efe3fc0 – before 6d67b2a73b8e3a079c355bab3c1aef7d85a044b899cb0dbd47a15d395bf3faa78dc122bc5efe3fc0 – before 5fcb6fce74ffa614d964667110cf1a516c48c6d999cb0dbd47a15d395bf3faa78dc122bc5efe3fc0 – before a4aeaa06d45e90f9b279f0b09de84bd00006e733
Linux Linux 5.4

References