CVE-2021-47481 RDMA/mlx5: Initialize the ODP xarray when creating an ODP MR

Medium 5.5 Published 22 May 2024 Updated 23 May 2026

A missing initialization in the Linux kernel RDMA driver causes a null pointer dereference and system crash when deregistering memory regions.

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

What is CVE-2021-47481?

CVE-2021-47481 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 22 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:

RDMA/mlx5: Initialize the ODP xarray when creating an ODP MR

Normally the zero fill would hide the missing initialization, but an errant set to desc_size in reg_create() causes a crash:

BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 0000000800000000 PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP PTI CPU: 5 PID: 890 Comm: ib_write_bw Not tainted 5.15.0-rc4+ #47 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.13.0-0-gf21b5a4aeb02-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:mlx5_ib_dereg_mr+0x14/0x3b0 [mlx5_ib] Code: 48 63 cd 4c 89 f7 48 89 0c 24 e8 37 30 03 e1 48 8b 0c 24 eb a0 90 0f 1f 44 00 00 41 56 41 55 41 54 55 53 48 89 fb 48 83 ec 30 <48> 8b 2f 65 48 8b 04 25 28 00 00 00 48 89 44 24 28 31 c0 8b 87 c8 RSP: 0018:ffff88811afa3a60 EFLAGS: 00010286 RAX: 000000000000001c RBX: 0000000800000000 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000800000000 RBP: 0000000800000000 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: c0000000fffff7ff R10: ffff88811afa38f8 R11: ffff88811afa38f0 R12: ffffffffa02c7ac0 R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffff88811afa3cd8 R15: ffff88810772fa00 FS: 00007f47b9080740(0000) GS:ffff88852cd40000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000000800000000 CR3: 000000010761e003 CR4: 0000000000370ea0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: mlx5_ib_free_odp_mr+0x95/0xc0 [mlx5_ib] mlx5_ib_dereg_mr+0x128/0x3b0 [mlx5_ib] ib_dereg_mr_user+0x45/0xb0 [ib_core] ? xas_load+0x8/0x80 destroy_hw_idr_uobject+0x1a/0x50 [ib_uverbs] uverbs_destroy_uobject+0x2f/0x150 [ib_uverbs] uobj_destroy+0x3c/0x70 [ib_uverbs] ib_uverbs_cmd_verbs+0x467/0xb00 [ib_uverbs] ? uverbs_finalize_object+0x60/0x60 [ib_uverbs] ? ttwu_queue_wakelist+0xa9/0xe0 ? pty_write+0x85/0x90 ? file_tty_write.isra.33+0x214/0x330 ? process_echoes+0x60/0x60 ib_uverbs_ioctl+0xa7/0x110 [ib_uverbs] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x10d/0x8e0 ? vfs_write+0x17f/0x260 do_syscall_64+0x3c/0x80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae

Add the missing xarray initialization and remove the desc_size set.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-47481?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2021-47481?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2021-47481 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47481 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47481, GHSA-7ghc-chxp-5r47, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-47481.