# CVE-2021-46961: irqchip/gic-v3: Do not enable irqs when handling spurious interrups > A bug in the Linux kernel GICv3 driver causes a kernel panic when handling spurious interrupts with pseudo-NMI enabled, leading to system crash. - **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`) - **Exploited in the wild:** Not known - **Login needed:** Any signed-in user - **Attackable:** Local or same network only - **Victim action needed:** Not needed - **Fix available:** Yes - **Published:** 27 Feb 2024 - **Updated:** 11 May 2026 - **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46961, GHSA-p2qc-mv5g-9gcr, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46961 ## What is CVE-2021-46961? CVE-2021-46961 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Feb 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim. ### 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] ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-46961? It affects 1 product. Products: Linux kernel. ## How do I fix CVE-2021-46961? Apply the vendor's patch. ## Is CVE-2021-46961 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-46961 in the wild and no public exploit code. ## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel - [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild) ## Fix prompt for AI coding agents ```text Check this codebase for CVE-2021-46961 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2021-46961 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Feb 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim. Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-46961 in the wild and no public exploit code. Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page. Task: 1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies. 2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it. 3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead. 4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why. 5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing. Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-46961/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-46961/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-46961 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-46961 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-46961 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-46961/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.