# CVE-2021-47492: mm, thp: bail out early in collapse_file for writeback page

> A flaw in the Linux kernel's transparent huge page collapse logic causes a kernel panic when handling writeback pages on XFS filesystems with large block sizes.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 22 May 2024
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47492, GHSA-qm36-7xcx-862v, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-47492

## What is CVE-2021-47492?

CVE-2021-47492 is a high-severity denial of service 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:

mm, thp: bail out early in collapse_file for writeback page

Currently collapse_file does not explicitly check PG_writeback, instead,
page_has_private and try_to_release_page are used to filter writeback
pages.  This does not work for xfs with blocksize equal to or larger
than pagesize, because in such case xfs has no page->private.

This makes collapse_file bail out early for writeback page.  Otherwise,
xfs end_page_writeback will panic as follows.

  page:fffffe00201bcc80 refcount:0 mapcount:0 mapping:ffff0003f88c86a8 index:0x0 pfn:0x84ef32
  aops:xfs_address_space_operations [xfs] ino:30000b7 dentry name:"libtest.so"
  flags: 0x57fffe0000008027(locked|referenced|uptodate|active|writeback)
  raw: 57fffe0000008027 ffff80001b48bc28 ffff80001b48bc28 ffff0003f88c86a8
  raw: 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 00000000ffffffff ffff0000c3e9a000
  page dumped because: VM_BUG_ON_PAGE(((unsigned int) page_ref_count(page) + 127u <= 127u))
  page->mem_cgroup:ffff0000c3e9a000
  ------------[ cut here ]------------
  kernel BUG at include/linux/mm.h:1212!
  Internal error: Oops - BUG: 0 [#1] SMP
  Modules linked in:
  BUG: Bad page state in process khugepaged  pfn:84ef32
   xfs(E)
  page:fffffe00201bcc80 refcount:0 mapcount:0 mapping:0 index:0x0 pfn:0x84ef32
   libcrc32c(E) rfkill(E) aes_ce_blk(E) crypto_simd(E) ...
  CPU: 25 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/25 Kdump: loaded Tainted: ...
  pstate: 60400005 (nZCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO BTYPE=--)
  Call trace:
    end_page_writeback+0x1c0/0x214
    iomap_finish_page_writeback+0x13c/0x204
    iomap_finish_ioend+0xe8/0x19c
    iomap_writepage_end_bio+0x38/0x50
    bio_endio+0x168/0x1ec
    blk_update_request+0x278/0x3f0
    blk_mq_end_request+0x34/0x15c
    virtblk_request_done+0x38/0x74 [virtio_blk]
    blk_done_softirq+0xc4/0x110
    __do_softirq+0x128/0x38c
    __irq_exit_rcu+0x118/0x150
    irq_exit+0x1c/0x30
    __handle_domain_irq+0x8c/0xf0
    gic_handle_irq+0x84/0x108
    el1_irq+0xcc/0x180
    arch_cpu_idle+0x18/0x40
    default_idle_call+0x4c/0x1a0
    cpuidle_idle_call+0x168/0x1e0
    do_idle+0xb4/0x104
    cpu_startup_entry+0x30/0x9c
    secondary_start_kernel+0x104/0x180
  Code: d4210000 b0006161 910c8021 94013f4d (d4210000)
  ---[ end trace 4a88c6a074082f8c ]---
  Kernel panic - not syncing: Oops - BUG: Fatal exception in interrupt

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-47492?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-47492?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2021-47492 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47492 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-2021-47492 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-47492 is a high-severity denial of service 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47492 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-2021-47492/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-47492/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-47492
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-47492
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-47492

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-47492/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.