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Fencer Intel
high 7.8

CVE-2021-46936 json

net: fix use-after-free in tw_timer_handler

published 2y ago modified 3mo ago also EUVD-2021-33584

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 15%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

net: fix use-after-free in tw_timer_handler

A real world panic issue was found as follow in Linux 5.4.

BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffde49a863de28 PGD 7e6fe62067 P4D 7e6fe62067 PUD 7e6fe63067 PMD f51e064067 PTE 0 RIP: 0010:tw_timer_handler+0x20/0x40 Call Trace: <IRQ> call_timer_fn+0x2b/0x120 run_timer_softirq+0x1ef/0x450 __do_softirq+0x10d/0x2b8 irq_exit+0xc7/0xd0 smp_apic_timer_interrupt+0x68/0x120 apic_timer_interrupt+0xf/0x20

This issue was also reported since 2017 in the thread [1], unfortunately, the issue was still can be reproduced after fixing DCCP.

The ipv4_mib_exit_net is called before tcp_sk_exit_batch when a net namespace is destroyed since tcp_sk_ops is registered befrore ipv4_mib_ops, which means tcp_sk_ops is in the front of ipv4_mib_ops in the list of pernet_list. There will be a use-after-free on net->mib.net_statistics in tw_timer_handler after ipv4_mib_exit_net if there are some inflight time-wait timers.

This bug is not introduced by commit f2bf415cfed7 ("mib: add net to NET_ADD_STATS_BH") since the net_statistics is a global variable instead of dynamic allocation and freeing. Actually, commit 61a7e26028b9 ("mib: put net statistics on struct net") introduces the bug since it put net statistics on struct net and free it when net namespace is destroyed.

Moving init_ipv4_mibs() to the front of tcp_init() to fix this bug and replace pr_crit() with panic() since continuing is meaningless when init_ipv4_mibs() fails.

[1] https://groups.google.com/g/syzkaller/c/p1tn-_Kc6l4/m/smuL_FMAAgAJ?pli=1

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 4.4.298, 4.9.296, 4.14.261, 4.19.224, 5.4.170, 5.10.90, 5.15.13, 5.16
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.15.15-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46936

  • linux Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-173.182
  • linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-105.119
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1124.133
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1069.73
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1068.72
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1018.20
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1110.113
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1059.62

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46936

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.33.48.1
  • kernel-syms-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.33.48.1
  • kernel-source-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.33.48.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.59.1
  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.59.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.59.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.59.1
  • kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP5, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.59.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:0034-1SUSE-SU-2024:4100-1SUSE-SU-2024:1490-1SUSE-SU-2024:1480-1SUSE-SU-2024:1466-1SUSE-SU-2024:1321-1

Is CVE-2021-46936 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2021-46936 updated cvss 7.3

kernel: net: fix use-after-free in tw_timer_handler

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2y ago

Exploit prediction

0.25% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 15% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.