CVE-2021-47119

Summary

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

ext4: fix memory leak in ext4_fill_super

Buffer head references must be released before calling kill_bdev(); otherwise the buffer head (and its page referenced by b_data) will not be freed by kill_bdev, and subsequently that bh will be leaked.

If blocksizes differ, sb_set_blocksize() will kill current buffers and page cache by using kill_bdev(). And then super block will be reread again but using correct blocksize this time. sb_set_blocksize() didn't fully free superblock page and buffer head, and being busy, they were not freed and instead leaked.

This can easily be reproduced by calling an infinite loop of:

systemctl start <ext4_on_lvm>.mount, and systemctl stop <ext4_on_lvm>.mount

… since systemd creates a cgroup for each slice which it mounts, and the bh leak get amplified by a dying memory cgroup that also never gets freed, and memory consumption is much more easily noticed.

Affected Software

VendorProductVersion RangeStatus
LinuxLinuxac27a0ec112a089f1a5102bc8dffc79c8c815571 < 01d349a481f0591230300a9171330136f9159bcdaffected
LinuxLinuxac27a0ec112a089f1a5102bc8dffc79c8c815571 < 1385b23396d511d5233b8b921ac3058b3f86a5e1affected
LinuxLinuxac27a0ec112a089f1a5102bc8dffc79c8c815571 < afd09b617db3786b6ef3dc43e28fe728cfea84dfaffected
LinuxLinux2.6.19affected
LinuxLinux0 < 2.6.19unaffected
LinuxLinux5.10.43 <= 5.10.*unaffected
LinuxLinux5.12.10 <= 5.12.*unaffected
LinuxLinux5.13 <= *unaffected

Weaknesses

ADP Enrichment

CISA ADP Vulnrichment

  • SSVC:
  • Exploitation: none
    • Automatable: no
    • Technical Impact: partial

CVE Program Container

Additional References

References