# CVE-2021-47229: PCI: aardvark: Fix kernel panic during PIO transfer

> A race condition in the Linux kernel PCI aardvark driver causes a kernel panic when a new PIO transfer is initiated before the previous one completes.

- **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:** 21 May 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47229, GHSA-74hg-7r85-vvw3, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-47229

## What is CVE-2021-47229?

CVE-2021-47229 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 May 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:

PCI: aardvark: Fix kernel panic during PIO transfer

Trying to start a new PIO transfer by writing value 0 in PIO_START register
when previous transfer has not yet completed (which is indicated by value 1
in PIO_START) causes an External Abort on CPU, which results in kernel
panic:

    SError Interrupt on CPU0, code 0xbf000002 -- SError
    Kernel panic - not syncing: Asynchronous SError Interrupt

To prevent kernel panic, it is required to reject a new PIO transfer when
previous one has not finished yet.

If previous PIO transfer is not finished yet, the kernel may issue a new
PIO request only if the previous PIO transfer timed out.

In the past the root cause of this issue was incorrectly identified (as it
often happens during link retraining or after link down event) and special
hack was implemented in Trusted Firmware to catch all SError events in EL3,
to ignore errors with code 0xbf000002 and not forwarding any other errors
to kernel and instead throw panic from EL3 Trusted Firmware handler.

Links to discussion and patches about this issue:
https://git.trustedfirmware.org/TF-A/trusted-firmware-a.git/commit/?id=3c7dcdac5c50
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pci/20190316161243.29517-1-repk@triplefau.lt/
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pci/971be151d24312cc533989a64bd454b4@www.loen.fr/
https://review.trustedfirmware.org/c/TF-A/trusted-firmware-a/+/1541

But the real cause was the fact that during link retraining or after link
down event the PIO transfer may take longer time, up to the 1.44s until it
times out. This increased probability that a new PIO transfer would be
issued by kernel while previous one has not finished yet.

After applying this change into the kernel, it is possible to revert the
mentioned TF-A hack and SError events do not have to be caught in TF-A EL3.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-47229?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-47229?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2021-47229 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47229 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-2021-47229 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-47229 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 May 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-2021-47229 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-2021-47229/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-47229/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-47229
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-47229
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-47229

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-47229/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
