CVE-2021-47250 net: ipv4: fix memory leak in netlbl_cipsov4_add_std

What is CVE-2021-47250?

CVE-2021-47250 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:

net: ipv4: fix memory leak in netlbl_cipsov4_add_std

Reported by syzkaller: BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xffff888105df7000 (size 64): comm "syz-executor842", pid 360, jiffies 4294824824 (age 22.546s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: [<00000000e67ed558>] kmalloc include/linux/slab.h:590 [inline] [<00000000e67ed558>] kzalloc include/linux/slab.h:720 [inline] [<00000000e67ed558>] netlbl_cipsov4_add_std net/netlabel/netlabel_cipso_v4.c:145 [inline] [<00000000e67ed558>] netlbl_cipsov4_add+0x390/0x2340 net/netlabel/netlabel_cipso_v4.c:416 [<0000000006040154>] genl_family_rcv_msg_doit.isra.0+0x20e/0x320 net/netlink/genetlink.c:739 [<00000000204d7a1c>] genl_family_rcv_msg net/netlink/genetlink.c:783 [inline] [<00000000204d7a1c>] genl_rcv_msg+0x2bf/0x4f0 net/netlink/genetlink.c:800 [<00000000c0d6a995>] netlink_rcv_skb+0x134/0x3d0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2504 [<00000000d78b9d2c>] genl_rcv+0x24/0x40 net/netlink/genetlink.c:811 [<000000009733081b>] netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1314 [inline] [<000000009733081b>] netlink_unicast+0x4a0/0x6a0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1340 [<00000000d5fd43b8>] netlink_sendmsg+0x789/0xc70 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1929 [<000000000a2d1e40>] sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:654 [inline] [<000000000a2d1e40>] sock_sendmsg+0x139/0x170 net/socket.c:674 [<00000000321d1969>] ____sys_sendmsg+0x658/0x7d0 net/socket.c:2350 [<00000000964e16bc>] ___sys_sendmsg+0xf8/0x170 net/socket.c:2404 [<000000001615e288>] __sys_sendmsg+0xd3/0x190 net/socket.c:2433 [<000000004ee8b6a5>] do_syscall_64+0x37/0x90 arch/x86/entry/common.c:47 [<00000000171c7cee>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae

The memory of doi_def->map.std pointing is allocated in netlbl_cipsov4_add_std, but no place has freed it. It should be freed in cipso_v4_doi_free which frees the cipso DOI resource.

Weakness: CWE-401

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-47250?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2021-47250?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2021-47250 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47250 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-2021-47250, GHSA-wr5g-85mp-25c9, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-47250.