CVE-2021-47089

kfence: fix memory leak when cat kfence objects

LOW
3.3
CVSS Score
Published: March 4, 2024 at 06:10 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 04:16 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
LOW3.3
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: kfence: fix memory leak when cat kfence objects Hulk robot reported a kmemleak problem: unreferenced object 0xffff93d1d8cc02e8 (size 248): comm "cat", pid 23327, jiffies 4624670141 (age 495992.217s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 40 85 19 d4 93 ff ff 00 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 .@.............. 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: seq_open+0x2a/0x80 full_proxy_open+0x167/0x1e0 do_dentry_open+0x1e1/0x3a0 path_openat+0x961/0xa20 do_filp_open+0xae/0x120 do_sys_openat2+0x216/0x2f0 do_sys_open+0x57/0x80 do_syscall_64+0x33/0x40 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xa9 unreferenced object 0xffff93d419854000 (size 4096): comm "cat", pid 23327, jiffies 4624670141 (age 495992.217s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 6b 66 65 6e 63 65 2d 23 32 35 30 3a 20 30 78 30 kfence-#250: 0x0 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 37 35 34 62 64 61 31 32 2d 0000000754bda12- backtrace: seq_read_iter+0x313/0x440 seq_read+0x14b/0x1a0 full_proxy_read+0x56/0x80 vfs_read+0xa5/0x1b0 ksys_read+0xa0/0xf0 do_syscall_64+0x33/0x40 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xa9 I find that we can easily reproduce this problem with the following commands: cat /sys/kernel/debug/kfence/objects echo scan > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak cat /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak The leaked memory is allocated in the stack below: do_syscall_64 do_sys_open do_dentry_open full_proxy_open seq_open ---> alloc seq_file vfs_read full_proxy_read seq_read seq_read_iter traverse ---> alloc seq_buf And it should have been released in the following process: do_syscall_64 syscall_exit_to_user_mode exit_to_user_mode_prepare task_work_run ____fput __fput full_proxy_release ---> free here However, the release function corresponding to file_operations is not implemented in kfence. As a result, a memory leak occurs. Therefore, the solution to this problem is to implement the corresponding release function.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 5.125.12 ≤ v < 5.15.125.12 ≤ v < 5.160ce20dd840890ce20dd840897b12ae70869c69f1ba34d6d169655.16 rc15.16 rc25.16 rc35.16 rc45.16 rc55.16 rc6
Vendor states this is fixed in 0129ab1f268b (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0129ab1f268b6cf88825eae819b9b84aa0a85634 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 2f06c8293d27 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 2f06c8293d27f6337f907042c602c9c953988c48 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.12 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.15.12 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.16 (unaffected)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (2)

Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0129ab1f268b6cf88825eae819b9b84aa0a85634
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2f06c8293d27f6337f907042c602c9c953988c48

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

3.3LOWCISA-ADP
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
LOW
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
CWE-401

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