CVE-2021-47623 powerpc/fixmap: Fix VM debug warning on unmap

Medium 5.5 Published 16 Jul 2024 Updated 11 May 2026

A bug in the Linux kernel's powerpc fixmap handling triggers a VM debug warning during unmap, potentially causing a denial of service.

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-2021-47623?

CVE-2021-47623 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 16 Jul 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:

powerpc/fixmap: Fix VM debug warning on unmap

Unmapping a fixmap entry is done by calling __set_fixmap() with FIXMAP_PAGE_CLEAR as flags.

Today, powerpc __set_fixmap() calls map_kernel_page().

map_kernel_page() is not happy when called a second time for the same page.

WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 1 at arch/powerpc/mm/pgtable.c:194 set_pte_at+0xc/0x1e8 CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper Not tainted 5.16.0-rc3-s3k-dev-01993-g350ff07feb7d-dirty #682 NIP: c0017cd4 LR: c00187f0 CTR: 00000010 REGS: e1011d50 TRAP: 0700 Not tainted (5.16.0-rc3-s3k-dev-01993-g350ff07feb7d-dirty) MSR: 00029032 <EE,ME,IR,DR,RI> CR: 42000208 XER: 00000000

GPR00: c0165fec e1011e10 c14c0000 c0ee2550 ff800000 c0f3d000 00000000 c001686c GPR08: 00001000 b00045a9 00000001 c0f58460 c0f50000 00000000 c0007e10 00000000 GPR16: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 GPR24: 00000000 00000000 c0ee2550 00000000 c0f57000 00000ff8 00000000 ff800000 NIP [c0017cd4] set_pte_at+0xc/0x1e8 LR [c00187f0] map_kernel_page+0x9c/0x100 Call Trace: [e1011e10] [c0736c68] vsnprintf+0x358/0x6c8 (unreliable) [e1011e30] [c0165fec] __set_fixmap+0x30/0x44 [e1011e40] [c0c13bdc] early_iounmap+0x11c/0x170 [e1011e70] [c0c06cb0] ioremap_legacy_serial_console+0x88/0xc0 [e1011e90] [c0c03634] do_one_initcall+0x80/0x178 [e1011ef0] [c0c0385c] kernel_init_freeable+0xb4/0x250 [e1011f20] [c0007e34] kernel_init+0x24/0x140 [e1011f30] [c0016268] ret_from_kernel_thread+0x5c/0x64 Instruction dump: 7fe3fb78 48019689 80010014 7c630034 83e1000c 5463d97e 7c0803a6 38210010 4e800020 81250000 712a0001 41820008 <0fe00000> 9421ffe0 93e1001c 48000030

Implement unmap_kernel_page() which clears an existing pte.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-47623?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2021-47623?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2021-47623 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47623 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47623, GHSA-cm9w-2x7j-gc65, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-47623.