# CVE-2021-46984: kyber: fix out of bounds access when preempted

> A race condition in the Linux kernel's Kyber I/O scheduler can cause out-of-bounds memory access, potentially leading to system crashes or instability.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 28 Feb 2024
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46984, GHSA-4qp7-5rvw-5428, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46984

## What is CVE-2021-46984?

CVE-2021-46984 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 28 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:

kyber: fix out of bounds access when preempted

__blk_mq_sched_bio_merge() gets the ctx and hctx for the current CPU and
passes the hctx to ->bio_merge(). kyber_bio_merge() then gets the ctx
for the current CPU again and uses that to get the corresponding Kyber
context in the passed hctx. However, the thread may be preempted between
the two calls to blk_mq_get_ctx(), and the ctx returned the second time
may no longer correspond to the passed hctx. This "works" accidentally
most of the time, but it can cause us to read garbage if the second ctx
came from an hctx with more ctx's than the first one (i.e., if
ctx->index_hw[hctx->type] > hctx->nr_ctx).

This manifested as this UBSAN array index out of bounds error reported
by Jakub:

UBSAN: array-index-out-of-bounds in ../kernel/locking/qspinlock.c:130:9
index 13106 is out of range for type 'long unsigned int [128]'
Call Trace:
 dump_stack+0xa4/0xe5
 ubsan_epilogue+0x5/0x40
 __ubsan_handle_out_of_bounds.cold.13+0x2a/0x34
 queued_spin_lock_slowpath+0x476/0x480
 do_raw_spin_lock+0x1c2/0x1d0
 kyber_bio_merge+0x112/0x180
 blk_mq_submit_bio+0x1f5/0x1100
 submit_bio_noacct+0x7b0/0x870
 submit_bio+0xc2/0x3a0
 btrfs_map_bio+0x4f0/0x9d0
 btrfs_submit_data_bio+0x24e/0x310
 submit_one_bio+0x7f/0xb0
 submit_extent_page+0xc4/0x440
 __extent_writepage_io+0x2b8/0x5e0
 __extent_writepage+0x28d/0x6e0
 extent_write_cache_pages+0x4d7/0x7a0
 extent_writepages+0xa2/0x110
 do_writepages+0x8f/0x180
 __writeback_single_inode+0x99/0x7f0
 writeback_sb_inodes+0x34e/0x790
 __writeback_inodes_wb+0x9e/0x120
 wb_writeback+0x4d2/0x660
 wb_workfn+0x64d/0xa10
 process_one_work+0x53a/0xa80
 worker_thread+0x69/0x5b0
 kthread+0x20b/0x240
 ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30

Only Kyber uses the hctx, so fix it by passing the request_queue to
->bio_merge() instead. BFQ and mq-deadline just use that, and Kyber can
map the queues itself to avoid the mismatch.

Weakness: CWE-129 (Improper Validation of Array Index)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-46984?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-46984?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2021-46984 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-46984 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-2021-46984 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-46984 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 28 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-2021-46984 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-2021-46984/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-46984/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-46984
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-46984
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-46984

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-46984/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.