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Low · 3.3 CVE-2021-47089 EUVD-2021-33737GHSA-97gj-q9fx-vc88

kfence: fix memory leak when cat kfence objects

Published Mar 4, 2024 · Updated May 11, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

Vendor: Linux Product: Linux Package: linux Package: linux-allwinner-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.0 Package: linux-aws-5.11 Package: linux-aws-5.13 Package: linux-aws-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.3 Package: linux-aws-5.8 Package: linux-aws-6.2 Package: linux-azure Package: linux-azure-5.11 Package: linux-azure-5.13 Package: linux-azure-5.19 Package: linux-azure-5.3 Package: linux-azure-5.8 Package: linux-azure-6.2 Package: linux-azure-edge Package: linux-azure-fde Package: linux-azure-fde-5.19 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.2 Package: linux-gcp Package: linux-gcp-5.11 Package: linux-gcp-5.13 Package: linux-gcp-5.19 Package: linux-gcp-5.3 Package: linux-gcp-5.8 Package: linux-gcp-6.2 Package: linux-gke Package: linux-gke-4.15 Package: linux-gke-5.15 Package: linux-gke-5.4 Package: linux-gkeop-5.4 Package: linux-hwe Package: linux-hwe-5.11 Package: linux-hwe-5.13 Package: linux-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-hwe-5.8 Package: linux-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-hwe-edge Package: linux-intel-5.13 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-nvidia-6.2 Package: linux-oem Package: linux-oem-5.10 Package: linux-oem-5.13 Package: linux-oem-5.14 Package: linux-oem-5.17 Package: linux-oem-5.6 Package: linux-oem-6.0 Package: linux-oem-6.1 Package: linux-oracle-5.0 Package: linux-oracle-5.11 Package: linux-oracle-5.13 Package: linux-oracle-5.3 Package: linux-oracle-5.8 Package: linux-raspi2 Package: linux-riscv Package: linux-riscv-5.11 Package: linux-riscv-5.19 Package: linux-riscv-5.8 Package: linux-starfive-5.19 Package: linux-starfive-6.2 Platform: Linux Ecosystem: Debian Ecosystem: Ubuntu

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 products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Linux Linux 5.12 5.15.12

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 linux 5.15.15-1 —
Debian 13 linux 5.15.15-1 —
Debian 12 linux 5.15.15-1 —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-riscv +20 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-gke +26 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-gcp +14 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS linux-hwe-edge No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES 15 SP5 kernel-64kb +5 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1
SLES 15 SP5 kernel-azure +2 5.14.21-150500.33.60.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2372-1
SLES 15 SP5 kernel-default-base 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1.150500.6.33.8 SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1
SLES 15 SP5 kernel-docs 5.14.21-150500.55.73.2 SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1
Show 3 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLE Micro 5.5 kernel-default 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1
SLE Micro 5.5 kernel-default-base 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1.150500.6.33.8 SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1
SLE Micro 5.5 kernel-rt +1 5.14.21-150500.13.61.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2394-1
SLE Live Patching 15 SP5 kernel-default 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1
SLE Live Patching 15 SP5 kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP5_Update_17 +1 1-150500.11.3.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1, SUSE-SU-2024:2394-1
SUSE Real Time Module 15 SP5 kernel-rt +3 5.14.21-150500.13.61.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2394-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Leap 15.5 dtb-aarch64 +9 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1
openSUSE Leap 15.5 kernel-azure +2 5.14.21-150500.33.60.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2372-1
openSUSE Leap 15.5 kernel-default-base 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1.150500.6.33.8 SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1
openSUSE Leap 15.5 kernel-docs 5.14.21-150500.55.73.2 SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1
openSUSE Leap 15.5 kernel-rt +3 5.14.21-150500.13.61.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2394-1
Show 1 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5 kernel-default 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1
openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5 kernel-default-base 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1.150500.6.33.8 SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1

Advisories 4

References