# CVE-2021-47544: tcp: fix page frag corruption on page fault

> A race condition in the Linux kernel TCP stack can corrupt data streams when handling page faults during network transmission.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 24 May 2024
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47544, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-47544

## What is CVE-2021-47544?

CVE-2021-47544 is a critical vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 May 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

tcp: fix page frag corruption on page fault

Steffen reported a TCP stream corruption for HTTP requests
served by the apache web-server using a cifs mount-point
and memory mapping the relevant file.

The root cause is quite similar to the one addressed by
commit 20eb4f29b602 ("net: fix sk_page_frag() recursion from
memory reclaim"). Here the nested access to the task page frag
is caused by a page fault on the (mmapped) user-space memory
buffer coming from the cifs file.

The page fault handler performs an smb transaction on a different
socket, inside the same process context. Since sk->sk_allaction
for such socket does not prevent the usage for the task_frag,
the nested allocation modify "under the hood" the page frag
in use by the outer sendmsg call, corrupting the stream.

The overall relevant stack trace looks like the following:

httpd 78268 [001] 3461630.850950:      probe:tcp_sendmsg_locked:
        ffffffff91461d91 tcp_sendmsg_locked+0x1
        ffffffff91462b57 tcp_sendmsg+0x27
        ffffffff9139814e sock_sendmsg+0x3e
        ffffffffc06dfe1d smb_send_kvec+0x28
        [...]
        ffffffffc06cfaf8 cifs_readpages+0x213
        ffffffff90e83c4b read_pages+0x6b
        ffffffff90e83f31 __do_page_cache_readahead+0x1c1
        ffffffff90e79e98 filemap_fault+0x788
        ffffffff90eb0458 __do_fault+0x38
        ffffffff90eb5280 do_fault+0x1a0
        ffffffff90eb7c84 __handle_mm_fault+0x4d4
        ffffffff90eb8093 handle_mm_fault+0xc3
        ffffffff90c74f6d __do_page_fault+0x1ed
        ffffffff90c75277 do_page_fault+0x37
        ffffffff9160111e page_fault+0x1e
        ffffffff9109e7b5 copyin+0x25
        ffffffff9109eb40 _copy_from_iter_full+0xe0
        ffffffff91462370 tcp_sendmsg_locked+0x5e0
        ffffffff91462370 tcp_sendmsg_locked+0x5e0
        ffffffff91462b57 tcp_sendmsg+0x27
        ffffffff9139815c sock_sendmsg+0x4c
        ffffffff913981f7 sock_write_iter+0x97
        ffffffff90f2cc56 do_iter_readv_writev+0x156
        ffffffff90f2dff0 do_iter_write+0x80
        ffffffff90f2e1c3 vfs_writev+0xa3
        ffffffff90f2e27c do_writev+0x5c
        ffffffff90c042bb do_syscall_64+0x5b
        ffffffff916000ad entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x65

The cifs filesystem rightfully sets sk_allocations to GFP_NOFS,
we can avoid the nesting using the sk page frag for allocation
lacking the __GFP_FS flag. Do not define an additional mm-helper
for that, as this is strictly tied to the sk page frag usage.

v1 -> v2:
 - use a stricted sk_page_frag() check instead of reordering the
   code (Eric)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-47544?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-47544?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2021-47544 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47544 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-2021-47544 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-47544 is a critical vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 May 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47544 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-2021-47544/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-47544/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-47544
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-47544
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-47544

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-47544/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.