CVE-2021-47182 scsi: core: Fix scsi_mode_sense() buffer length handling

What is CVE-2021-47182?

CVE-2021-47182 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 10 Apr 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:

scsi: core: Fix scsi_mode_sense() buffer length handling

Several problems exist with scsi_mode_sense() buffer length handling:

1) The allocation length field of the MODE SENSE(10) command is 16-bits, occupying bytes 7 and 8 of the CDB. With this command, access to mode pages larger than 255 bytes is thus possible. However, the CDB allocation length field is set by assigning len to byte 8 only, thus truncating buffer length larger than 255.

2) If scsi_mode_sense() is called with len smaller than 8 with sdev->use_10_for_ms set, or smaller than 4 otherwise, the buffer length is increased to 8 and 4 respectively, and the buffer is zero filled with these increased values, thus corrupting the memory following the buffer.

Fix these 2 problems by using put_unaligned_be16() to set the allocation length field of MODE SENSE(10) CDB and by returning an error when len is too small.

Furthermore, if len is larger than 255B, always try MODE SENSE(10) first, even if the device driver did not set sdev->use_10_for_ms. In case of invalid opcode error for MODE SENSE(10), access to mode pages larger than 255 bytes are not retried using MODE SENSE(6). To avoid buffer length overflows for the MODE_SENSE(10) case, check that len is smaller than 65535 bytes.

While at it, also fix the folowing:

* Use get_unaligned_be16() to retrieve the mode data length and block descriptor length fields of the mode sense reply header instead of using an open coded calculation.

* Fix the kdoc dbd argument explanation: the DBD bit stands for Disable Block Descriptor, which is the opposite of what the dbd argument description was.

Weakness: CWE-770

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-47182?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2021-47182?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2021-47182 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47182 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47182, GHSA-qq35-93pf-cxxv, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2021-47182, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-47182.