# CVE-2021-47584: iocost: Fix divide-by-zero on donation from low hweight cgroup

> A divide-by-zero error in the Linux kernel's iocost block layer can cause a system crash when specific cgroup weights are used.

- **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:** 19 Jun 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47584, GHSA-9777-6rgr-2wc6, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-47584

## What is CVE-2021-47584?

CVE-2021-47584 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 19 Jun 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:

iocost: Fix divide-by-zero on donation from low hweight cgroup

The donation calculation logic assumes that the donor has non-zero
after-donation hweight, so the lowest active hweight a donating cgroup can
have is 2 so that it can donate 1 while keeping the other 1 for itself.
Earlier, we only donated from cgroups with sizable surpluses so this
condition was always true. However, with the precise donation algorithm
implemented, f1de2439ec43 ("blk-iocost: revamp donation amount
determination") made the donation amount calculation exact enabling even low
hweight cgroups to donate.

This means that in rare occasions, a cgroup with active hweight of 1 can
enter donation calculation triggering the following warning and then a
divide-by-zero oops.

 WARNING: CPU: 4 PID: 0 at block/blk-iocost.c:1928 transfer_surpluses.cold+0x0/0x53 [884/94867]
 ...
 RIP: 0010:transfer_surpluses.cold+0x0/0x53
 Code: 92 ff 48 c7 c7 28 d1 ab b5 65 48 8b 34 25 00 ae 01 00 48 81 c6 90 06 00 00 e8 8b 3f fe ff 48 c7 c0 ea ff ff ff e9 95 ff 92 ff <0f> 0b 48 c7 c7 30 da ab b5 e8 71 3f fe ff 4c 89 e8 4d 85 ed 74 0
4
 ...
 Call Trace:
  <IRQ>
  ioc_timer_fn+0x1043/0x1390
  call_timer_fn+0xa1/0x2c0
  __run_timers.part.0+0x1ec/0x2e0
  run_timer_softirq+0x35/0x70
 ...
 iocg: invalid donation weights in /a/b: active=1 donating=1 after=0

Fix it by excluding cgroups w/ active hweight < 2 from donating. Excluding
these extreme low hweight donations shouldn't affect work conservation in
any meaningful way.

Weakness: CWE-369 (Divide By Zero)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-47584?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-47584?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2021-47584 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47584 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-2021-47584 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-47584 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 19 Jun 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-2021-47584 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-2021-47584/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-47584/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-47584
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-47584
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-47584

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-47584/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.