CVE-2021-47640 [High] | Out-of-bounds Write in Linux Kernel

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc/kasan: Fix early region not updated correctly The shadow's page table is not updated when PTE_RPN_SHIFT is 24 and PAGE_SHIFT is 12. It not only causes false positives but also false negative as shown the following text. Fix it by bringing the logic of kasan_early_shadow_page_entry here. 1. False Positive: ================================================================== BUG: KASAN: vmalloc-out-of-bounds in pcpu_alloc+0x508/0xa50 Write of size 16 at addr f57f3be0 by task swapper/0/1 CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 5.15.0-12267-gdebe436e77c7 #1 Call Trace: [c80d1c20] [c07fe7b8] dump_stack_lvl+0x4c/0x6c (unreliable) [c80d1c40] [c02ff668] print_address_description.constprop.0+0x88/0x300 [c80d1c70] [c02ff45c] kasan_report+0x1ec/0x200 [c80d1cb0] [c0300b20] kasan_check_range+0x160/0x2f0 [c80d1cc0] [c03018a4] memset+0x34/0x90 [c80d1ce0] [c0280108] pcpu_alloc+0x508/0xa50 [c80d1d40] [c02fd7bc] __kmem_cache_create+0xfc/0x570 [c80d1d70] [c0283d64] kmem_cache_create_usercopy+0x274/0x3e0 [c80d1db0] [c2036580] init_sd+0xc4/0x1d0 [c80d1de0] [c00044a0] do_one_initcall+0xc0/0x33c [c80d1eb0] [c2001624] kernel_init_freeable+0x2c8/0x384 [c80d1ef0] [c0004b14] kernel_init+0x24/0x170 [c80d1f10] [c001b26c] ret_from_kernel_thread+0x5c/0x64 Memory state around the buggy address: f57f3a80: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f57f3b00: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 >f57f3b80: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 ^ f57f3c00: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f57f3c80: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 ================================================================== 2. False Negative (with KASAN tests): ================================================================== Before fix: ok 45 - kmalloc_double_kzfree # vmalloc_oob: EXPECTATION FAILED at lib/test_kasan.c:1039 KASAN failure expected in "((volatile char *)area)[3100]", but none occurred not ok 46 - vmalloc_oob not ok 1 - kasan ================================================================== After fix: ok 1 - kasan

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2025-11-21	0.06%	0.04%	-0.02%
2	2025-11-18	0.04%	0.06%	+0.01%
3	2025-02-27	—	0.04%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2025-11-21

0.06%

0.04%

-0.02%

2025-11-18

0.04%

0.06%

+0.01%

2025-02-27

—

0.04%

—

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	[email protected]
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

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

[email protected]

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

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-47640

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	not yet assigned	CVE-2021-47640 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-2021-47640
`redhat`	high	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-47640
`suse`	medium	CVE-2021-47640 severity moderate: SUSE including 25 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 113 product×package rows across 22 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 12 SP5, SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching 12 SP5, … (22 product lines)): Known Not Affected 113.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-47640/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2021-47640 medium 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, ignored 146, not-affected 131, released 129.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-47640

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-47640

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
linux	linux_kernel	>= 5.4, < 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-2021-47640

URL	Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5a3d8f3192a409893c57808cc935e16484df1068	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7f19245c3647afea8c7c41f795506ef70f64b9f2	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dd75080aa8409ce10d50fb58981c6b59bf8707d3	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/de56beace6648065d404cd9835aa7d30e3df519d	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e3d157a4b4f4e0268c98be5b7013bf4b31234bb6	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f39a3309393a4a484532f6ba745c6acbcfe06115	Patch

URL

CVE-2021-47640 | powerpc/kasan: Fix early region not updated correctly

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-47640

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-47640

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-47640

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-47640

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-47640

References for CVE-2021-47640