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CVE-2021-47527

MEDIUMCVSS 5.5/10EPSS 0.25%

Last modified

CVE-2021-47527 is a medium-severity vulnerability rated 5.5/10 on the CVSS scale. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: serial: core: fix transmit-buffer reset and memleak Commit 761ed4a94582 ("tty: serial_core: convert uart_close to use tty_port_close") converted serial core to use tty_port_close() but failed to notice that the transmit buffer still needs to be freed on final close. Not freeing the transmit buffer means that the buffer is no longer cleared on next open so that any ioctl() waiting for the buffer to drain might wait indefinitely (e.g. on termios changes) or that stale data can end up being transmitted in case tx is restarted. Furthermore, the buffer of any port that has been opened would leak on driver unbind. Note that the port lock is held when clearing the buffer pointer due to the ldisc race worked around by commit a5ba1d95e46e ("uart: fix race between uart_put_char() and uart_shutdown()"). Also note that the tty-port shutdown() callback is not called for console ports so it is not strictly necessary to free the buffer page after releasing the lock (cf. EPSS estimates a 0.25% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: serial: core: fix transmit-buffer reset and memleak Commit 761ed4a94582 ("tty: serial_core: convert uart_close to use tty_port_close") converted serial core to use tty_port_close() but failed to notice that the transmit buffer still needs to be freed on final close. Not freeing the transmit buffer means that the buffer is no longer cleared on next open so that any ioctl() waiting for the buffer to drain might wait indefinitely (e.g. on termios changes) or that stale data can end up being transmitted in case tx is restarted. Furthermore, the buffer of any port that has been opened would leak on driver unbind. Note that the port lock is held when clearing the buffer pointer due to the ldisc race worked around by commit a5ba1d95e46e ("uart: fix race between uart_put_char() and uart_shutdown()"). Also note that the tty-port shutdown() callback is not called for console ports so it is not strictly necessary to free the buffer page after releasing the lock (cf. d72402145ace ("tty/serial: do not free trasnmit buffer page under port lock")).

Metrics

CVSS 3.1
5.5/10

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS Probability
0.25%

16.3th percentile

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days. Learn more

Weakness Enumeration

Affected Software

VendorProductVersionsUpdate
LinuxLinux Kernel>= 4.9, < 4.9.292—
LinuxLinux Kernel>= 4.10, < 4.14.257—
LinuxLinux Kernel>= 4.15, < 4.19.220—
LinuxLinux Kernel>= 4.20, < 5.4.164—
LinuxLinux Kernel>= 5.5, < 5.10.84—
LinuxLinux Kernel>= 5.11, < 5.15.7—
LinuxLinux Kernel5.16Rc1

References

Timeline

Published
Last Modified
Status
Analyzed

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2021-47527?
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: serial: core: fix transmit-buffer reset and memleak Commit 761ed4a94582 ("tty: serial_core: convert uart_close to use tty_port_close") converted serial core to use tty_port_close() but failed to notice that the transmit buffer still needs to be freed on final close. Not freeing the transmit buffer means that the buffer is no longer cleared on next open so that any ioctl() waiting for the buffer to drain might wait indefinitely (e.g. on termios changes) or that stale data can end up being transmitted in case tx is restarted. Furthermore, the buffer of any port that has been opened would leak on driver unbind. Note that the port lock is held when clearing the buffer pointer due to the ldisc race worked around by commit a5ba1d95e46e ("uart: fix race between uart_put_char() and uart_shutdown()"). Also note that the tty-port shutdown() callback is not called for console ports so it is not strictly necessary to free the buffer page after releasing the lock (cf. d72402145ace ("tty/serial: do not free trasnmit buffer page under port lock")).
How severe is CVE-2021-47527?
CVE-2021-47527 has a CVSS score of 5.5/10 (MEDIUM severity). The EPSS model estimates a 0.25% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How do I fix CVE-2021-47527?
Check the vendor references and advisories linked above for patched versions and mitigation guidance. You can also run a Strix scan to test if your systems are affected.

Are you affected by CVE-2021-47527?

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Source: NVD / NIST