# CVE-2021-47396: mac80211-hwsim: fix late beacon hrtimer handling

> A flaw in the Linux kernel mac80211-hwsim module causes system stalls when beacon timers fire late, requiring a patch to prevent 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-2021-47396, GHSA-cwq4-fr9x-6844, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-47396

## What is CVE-2021-47396?

CVE-2021-47396 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:

mac80211-hwsim: fix late beacon hrtimer handling

Thomas explained in https://lore.kernel.org/r/87mtoeb4hb.ffs@tglx
that our handling of the hrtimer here is wrong: If the timer fires
late (e.g. due to vCPU scheduling, as reported by Dmitry/syzbot)
then it tries to actually rearm the timer at the next deadline,
which might be in the past already:

 1          2          3          N          N+1
 |          |          |   ...    |          |

 ^ intended to fire here (1)
            ^ next deadline here (2)
                                      ^ actually fired here

The next time it fires, it's later, but will still try to schedule
for the next deadline (now 3), etc. until it catches up with N,
but that might take a long time, causing stalls etc.

Now, all of this is simulation, so we just have to fix it, but
note that the behaviour is wrong even per spec, since there's no
value then in sending all those beacons unaligned - they should be
aligned to the TBTT (1, 2, 3, ... in the picture), and if we're a
bit (or a lot) late, then just resume at that point.

Therefore, change the code to use hrtimer_forward_now() which will
ensure that the next firing of the timer would be at N+1 (in the
picture), i.e. the next interval point after the current time.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-47396?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-47396?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2021-47396 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47396 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-2021-47396 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-47396 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-2021-47396 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-2021-47396/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-47396/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-47396
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-47396
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-47396

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-47396/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.