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Fencer Intel
high 7.8

CVE-2021-47321 json

watchdog: Fix possible use-after-free by calling del_timer_sync()

published 2y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2021-34326

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 16%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

watchdog: Fix possible use-after-free by calling del_timer_sync()

This driver's remove path calls del_timer(). However, that function does not wait until the timer handler finishes. This means that the timer handler may still be running after the driver's remove function has finished, which would result in a use-after-free.

Fix by calling del_timer_sync(), which makes sure the timer handler has finished, and unable to re-schedule itself.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 4.4.276, 4.9.276, 4.14.240, 4.19.198, 5.4.134, 5.10.52, 5.12.19, 5.13.4, 5.14
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.14.6-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47321

  • linux Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-156.163
  • linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-88.99
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1111.118
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1057.60
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1053.57
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1005.6
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1099.101
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1047.49

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-47321

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 RHEL 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10
  • perf RHEL 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10
  • bpftool RHEL 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10
  • kernel-core RHEL 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10
  • kernel-tools RHEL 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10
  • python3-perf RHEL 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10
  • kernel-modules RHEL 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10
  • kernel-zfcpdump RHEL 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10

red hat advisories RHSA-2024:8107RHSA-2024:7000RHSA-2024:7001

  • kernel-64kb SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS, Enterprise Storage 7.1 5.3.18-150300.59.164.1
  • kernel-syms SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS +1 more 5.3.18-150300.59.164.1
  • kernel-source SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS +1 more 5.3.18-150300.59.164.1
  • kernel-default SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.2 +5 more 5.3.18-150300.59.164.1
  • kernel-preempt SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS +1 more 5.3.18-150300.59.164.1
  • kernel-obs-build SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS +1 more 5.3.18-150300.59.164.1
  • kernel-default-base SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.2 +3 more 5.3.18-150300.59.164.1.150300.18.96.1
  • kernel-syms SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 4.12.14-122.219.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2024:2185-1SUSE-SU-2024:2184-1SUSE-SU-2024:2183-1SUSE-SU-2024:2010-1SUSE-SU-2024:1983-1SUSE-SU-2024:1979-1

  • kernel AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10
  • perf AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10
  • bpftool AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10
  • kernel-core AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10
  • kernel-tools AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10
  • python3-perf AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10
  • kernel-modules AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10
  • kernel-zfcpdump AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10

almalinux advisories ALSA-2024:7000ALSA-2024:7001

  • kernel Rocky Linux 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10
  • kernel-rt Rocky Linux 8 4.18.0-553.22.1.rt7.363.el8_10

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2024:7000RLSA-2024:7001

Is CVE-2021-47321 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-2021-47321 updated cvss 4.4

kernel: watchdog: Fix possible use-after-free by calling del_timer_sync()

  • 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: workaround, no fix planned “Red Hat has investigated whether a possible mitigation exists for this issue, and has not been able to identify a practical example. Please update the affected package as soon as possible.”
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder EUS (v.8.8) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 4.18.0-477.75.1.el8_8, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 4.18.0-477.75.1.el8_8, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 4.18.0-477.75.1.el8_8
    fixed: vendor fix “Red Hat has investigated whether a possible mitigation exists for this issue, and has not been able to identify a practical example. Please update the affected package as soon as possible.” RHSA-2024:8107
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) perf 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10, kernel 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10, bpftool 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10, kernel-core 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10, kernel-tools 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10, python3-perf 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10, +15 more
    fixed: vendor fix “Red Hat has investigated whether a possible mitigation exists for this issue, and has not been able to identify a practical example. Please update the affected package as soon as possible.” RHSA-2024:7000
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS EUS (v.8.8) perf 4.18.0-477.75.1.el8_8, kernel 4.18.0-477.75.1.el8_8, bpftool 4.18.0-477.75.1.el8_8, kernel-core 4.18.0-477.75.1.el8_8, kernel-tools 4.18.0-477.75.1.el8_8, python3-perf 4.18.0-477.75.1.el8_8, +15 more
    fixed: vendor fix “Red Hat has investigated whether a possible mitigation exists for this issue, and has not been able to identify a practical example. Please update the affected package as soon as possible.” RHSA-2024:8107
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 8) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 4.18.0-553.22.1.el8_10
    fixed: vendor fix “Red Hat has investigated whether a possible mitigation exists for this issue, and has not been able to identify a practical example. Please update the affected package as soon as possible.” RHSA-2024:7000
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux NFV (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-553.22.1.rt7.363.el8_10, kernel-rt-kvm 4.18.0-553.22.1.rt7.363.el8_10, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-553.22.1.rt7.363.el8_10, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-553.22.1.rt7.363.el8_10, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 4.18.0-553.22.1.rt7.363.el8_10, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-553.22.1.rt7.363.el8_10, +4 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux RT (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-553.22.1.rt7.363.el8_10, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-553.22.1.rt7.363.el8_10, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-553.22.1.rt7.363.el8_10, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-553.22.1.rt7.363.el8_10, kernel-rt-debug-modules 4.18.0-553.22.1.rt7.363.el8_10, kernel-rt-modules-extra 4.18.0-553.22.1.rt7.363.el8_10, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix “Red Hat has investigated whether a possible mitigation exists for this issue, and has not been able to identify a practical example. Please update the affected package as soon as possible.” RHSA-2024:7001
  • Red Hat OpenShift AI 8 rhoai/odh-rhel8-operator v2.13.1-2, rhoai/odh-dashboard-rhel8 v2.13.1-1, rhoai/odh-modelmesh-rhel8 v2.13.1-1, rhoai/odh-operator-bundle v2.13.1-2, rhoai/odh-rhel8-operator v2.14.0-24, rhoai/odh-dashboard-rhel8 v2.14.0-11, +56 more
    fixed: vendor fix “Red Hat has investigated whether a possible mitigation exists for this issue, and has not been able to identify a practical example. Please update the affected package as soon as possible.” RHBA-2024:8413
  • 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 16% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
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.