# CVE-2021-47256: mm/memory-failure: make sure wait for page writeback in memory_failure

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel panic via a race condition in memory failure handling, causing a denial of service.

- **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-2021-47256, GHSA-p52g-5qgx-4crw, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-47256

## What is CVE-2021-47256?

CVE-2021-47256 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:

mm/memory-failure: make sure wait for page writeback in memory_failure

Our syzkaller trigger the "BUG_ON(!list_empty(&inode->i_wb_list))" in
clear_inode:

  kernel BUG at fs/inode.c:519!
  Internal error: Oops - BUG: 0 [#1] SMP
  Modules linked in:
  Process syz-executor.0 (pid: 249, stack limit = 0x00000000a12409d7)
  CPU: 1 PID: 249 Comm: syz-executor.0 Not tainted 4.19.95
  Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT)
  pstate: 80000005 (Nzcv daif -PAN -UAO)
  pc : clear_inode+0x280/0x2a8
  lr : clear_inode+0x280/0x2a8
  Call trace:
    clear_inode+0x280/0x2a8
    ext4_clear_inode+0x38/0xe8
    ext4_free_inode+0x130/0xc68
    ext4_evict_inode+0xb20/0xcb8
    evict+0x1a8/0x3c0
    iput+0x344/0x460
    do_unlinkat+0x260/0x410
    __arm64_sys_unlinkat+0x6c/0xc0
    el0_svc_common+0xdc/0x3b0
    el0_svc_handler+0xf8/0x160
    el0_svc+0x10/0x218
  Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception

A crash dump of this problem show that someone called __munlock_pagevec
to clear page LRU without lock_page: do_mmap -> mmap_region -> do_munmap
-> munlock_vma_pages_range -> __munlock_pagevec.

As a result memory_failure will call identify_page_state without
wait_on_page_writeback.  And after truncate_error_page clear the mapping
of this page.  end_page_writeback won't call sb_clear_inode_writeback to
clear inode->i_wb_list.  That will trigger BUG_ON in clear_inode!

Fix it by checking PageWriteback too to help determine should we skip
wait_on_page_writeback.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-47256?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-47256?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2021-47256 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47256 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-2021-47256 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-47256 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-2021-47256 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-2021-47256/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-47256/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-47256
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-47256
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-47256

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-47256/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.