CVE-2021-47634 | ubi: Fix race condition between ctrl_cdev_ioctl and ubi_cdev_ioctl

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ubi: Fix race condition between ctrl_cdev_ioctl and ubi_cdev_ioctl Hulk Robot reported a KASAN report about use-after-free: ================================================================== BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in __list_del_entry_valid+0x13d/0x160 Read of size 8 at addr ffff888035e37d98 by task ubiattach/1385 [...] Call Trace: klist_dec_and_del+0xa7/0x4a0 klist_put+0xc7/0x1a0 device_del+0x4d4/0xed0 cdev_device_del+0x1a/0x80 ubi_attach_mtd_dev+0x2951/0x34b0 [ubi] ctrl_cdev_ioctl+0x286/0x2f0 [ubi] Allocated by task 1414: device_add+0x60a/0x18b0 cdev_device_add+0x103/0x170 ubi_create_volume+0x1118/0x1a10 [ubi] ubi_cdev_ioctl+0xb7f/0x1ba0 [ubi] Freed by task 1385: cdev_device_del+0x1a/0x80 ubi_remove_volume+0x438/0x6c0 [ubi] ubi_cdev_ioctl+0xbf4/0x1ba0 [ubi] [...] ================================================================== The lock held by ctrl_cdev_ioctl is ubi_devices_mutex, but the lock held by ubi_cdev_ioctl is ubi->device_mutex. Therefore, the two locks can be concurrent. ctrl_cdev_ioctl contains two operations: ubi_attach and ubi_detach. ubi_detach is bug-free because it uses reference counting to prevent concurrency. However, uif_init and uif_close in ubi_attach may race with ubi_cdev_ioctl. uif_init will race with ubi_cdev_ioctl as in the following stack. cpu1 cpu2 cpu3 _______________________|________________________|______________________ ctrl_cdev_ioctl ubi_attach_mtd_dev uif_init ubi_cdev_ioctl ubi_create_volume cdev_device_add ubi_add_volume // sysfs exist kill_volumes ubi_cdev_ioctl ubi_remove_volume cdev_device_del // first free ubi_free_volume cdev_del // double free cdev_device_del And uif_close will race with ubi_cdev_ioctl as in the following stack. cpu1 cpu2 cpu3 _______________________|________________________|______________________ ctrl_cdev_ioctl ubi_attach_mtd_dev uif_init ubi_cdev_ioctl ubi_create_volume cdev_device_add ubi_debugfs_init_dev //error goto out_uif; uif_close kill_volumes ubi_cdev_ioctl ubi_remove_volume cdev_device_del // first free ubi_free_volume // double free The cause of this problem is that commit 714fb87e8bc0 make device "available" before it becomes accessible via sysfs. Therefore, we roll back the modification. We will fix the race condition between ubi device creation and udev by removing ubi_get_device in vol_attribute_show and dev_attribute_show.This avoids accessing uninitialized ubi_devices[ubi_num]. ubi_get_device is used to prevent devices from being deleted during sysfs execution. However, now kernfs ensures that devices will not be deleted before all reference counting are released. The key process is shown in the following stack. device_del device_remove_attrs device_remove_groups sysfs_remove_groups sysfs_remove_group remove_files kernfs_remove_by_name kernfs_remove_by_name_ns __kernfs_remove kernfs_drain

Published: 2025-02-26 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2021-47634 is rated Low Risk (38.3/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.28%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-47634

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.02% 0.28% +0.26%
2 2026-04-06 0.05% 0.02% -0.03%
3 2025-07-26 0.05%

Full EPSS history (6 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-47634

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 5.9 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-47634

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-47634

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-47634 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-47634
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-47634
suse medium CVE-2021-47634 severity moderate: SUSE including 275 source package names (amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20210304-hvm-ssd-x86_64, amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20220127-hvm-ssd-x86_64, …), 413 product×package rows across 41 product lines (Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-BYOS, Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-HPC-BYOS, … (41 product lines)): Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 102, Fixed 80. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-47634/
ubuntu high CVE-2021-47634 high priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1551 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1145, released 151, ignored 146, not-affected 109. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-47634

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-47634

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 3.2.84, < 3.3 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 3.10.103, < 3.11 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 3.12.63, < 3.13 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 3.14.77, < 3.15 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 3.16.39, < 3.17 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 3.18.40, < 3.19 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 4.1.31, < 4.2 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 4.4.19, < 4.5 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 4.7.2, < 4.14.276 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 4.15, < 4.19.238 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 4.20, < 5.4.189 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.5, < 5.10.110 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.33 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 5.16.19 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.17, < 5.17.2 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-47634

cvelogic Threat Intelligence