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Unscored CVE-2021-47256 EUVD-2021-33904GHSA-p52g-5qgx-4crw

mm/memory-failure: make sure wait for page writeback in memory_failure

Published May 21, 2024 · Updated May 11, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

Vendor: Linux Product: Linux Package: linux Package: linux Package: linux-allwinner-5.19 Package: linux-aws 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-5.4 Package: linux-aws-5.8 Package: linux-aws-6.2 Package: linux-aws-fips Package: linux-aws-hwe Package: linux-azure Package: linux-azure-4.15 Package: linux-azure-5.11 Package: linux-azure-5.13 Package: linux-azure-5.19 Package: linux-azure-5.3 Package: linux-azure-5.4 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-azure-fips Package: linux-bluefield Package: linux-fips Package: linux-gcp Package: linux-gcp-4.15 Package: linux-gcp-5.11 Package: linux-gcp-5.13 Package: linux-gcp-5.19 Package: linux-gcp-5.3 Package: linux-gcp-5.4 Package: linux-gcp-5.8 Package: linux-gcp-6.2 Package: linux-gcp-fips Package: linux-gke Package: linux-gke-4.15 Package: linux-gke-5.15 Package: linux-gke-5.4 Package: linux-gkeop 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-5.4 Package: linux-hwe-5.8 Package: linux-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-hwe-edge Package: linux-intel-5.13 Package: linux-intel-iot-realtime Package: linux-kvm Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-lts-xenial 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 Package: linux-oracle-5.0 Package: linux-oracle-5.11 Package: linux-oracle-5.13 Package: linux-oracle-5.3 Package: linux-oracle-5.4 Package: linux-oracle-5.8 Package: linux-raspi Package: linux-raspi-5.4 Package: linux-raspi-realtime Package: linux-raspi2 Package: linux-realtime 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 Package: linux-vmware Platform: Linux Ecosystem: Debian Ecosystem: Ubuntu

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mm/memory-failure: make sure wait for page writeback in memory_failure

Our syzkaller trigger the "BUG_ON(!list_empty(&inode->i_wb_list))" in
clear_inode:

kernel BUG at fs/inode.c:519!
Internal error: Oops - BUG: 0 [#1] SMP
Modules linked in:
Process syz-executor.0 (pid: 249, stack limit = 0x00000000a12409d7)
CPU: 1 PID: 249 Comm: syz-executor.0 Not tainted 4.19.95
Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT)
pstate: 80000005 (Nzcv daif -PAN -UAO)
pc : clear_inode+0x280/0x2a8
lr : clear_inode+0x280/0x2a8
Call trace:
clear_inode+0x280/0x2a8
ext4_clear_inode+0x38/0xe8
ext4_free_inode+0x130/0xc68
ext4_evict_inode+0xb20/0xcb8
evict+0x1a8/0x3c0
iput+0x344/0x460
do_unlinkat+0x260/0x410
__arm64_sys_unlinkat+0x6c/0xc0
el0_svc_common+0xdc/0x3b0
el0_svc_handler+0xf8/0x160
el0_svc+0x10/0x218
Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception

A crash dump of this problem show that someone called __munlock_pagevec
to clear page LRU without lock_page: do_mmap -> mmap_region -> do_munmap
-> munlock_vma_pages_range -> __munlock_pagevec.

As a result memory_failure will call identify_page_state without
wait_on_page_writeback. And after truncate_error_page clear the mapping
of this page. end_page_writeback won't call sb_clear_inode_writeback to
clear inode->i_wb_list. That will trigger BUG_ON in clear_inode!

Fix it by checking PageWriteback too to help determine should we skip
wait_on_page_writeback.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Linux Linux 3.16 4.14.238

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 5.10.46-1 —
Debian 13 linux 5.10.46-1 —
Debian 12 linux 5.10.46-1 —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-raspi-realtime No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-riscv +22 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux 5.4.0-81.91 —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-aws 5.4.0-1055.58 —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-azure 5.4.0-1056.58 —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-bluefield 5.4.0-1019.22 —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-gcp 5.4.0-1051.55 —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-gke +26 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-gkeop 5.4.0-1022.23 —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-kvm 5.4.0-1045.47 —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-oracle 5.4.0-1053.57 —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-raspi 5.4.0-1042.46 —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux 4.15.0-156.163 —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-aws 4.15.0-1111.118 —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-aws-5.4 5.4.0-1055.58~18.04.1 —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-azure-4.15 4.15.0-1123.136 —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-azure-5.4 5.4.0-1056.58~18.04.1 —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-gcp +14 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-gcp-4.15 4.15.0-1108.122 —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-gcp-5.4 5.4.0-1051.55~18.04.1 —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-hwe-5.4 5.4.0-81.91~18.04.1 —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-kvm 4.15.0-1099.101 —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-oracle 4.15.0-1080.88 —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-oracle-5.4 5.4.0-1053.57~18.04.1 —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-raspi-5.4 5.4.0-1042.46~18.04.3 —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS linux-hwe-edge No fix yet —
Show 8 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro FIPS 20.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS 18.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS 16.04 LTS linux-fips No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 20.04 LTS linux-aws-fips 5.4.0-1069.73+fips2 —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 20.04 LTS linux-azure-fips 5.4.0-1073.76+fips1 —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 20.04 LTS linux-fips 5.4.0-1032.37 —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 20.04 LTS linux-gcp-fips 5.4.0-1067.71~20.04.1 —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 18.04 LTS linux-aws-fips 4.15.0-2053.55 —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 18.04 LTS linux-azure-fips 4.15.0-2035.39 —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 18.04 LTS linux-fips 4.15.0-1069.78 —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 18.04 LTS linux-gcp-fips 4.15.0-2018.20 —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 16.04 LTS linux-fips No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS linux +2 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS linux-aws-hwe 4.15.0-1111.118~16.04.1 —
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS linux-azure 4.15.0-1123.136~16.04.1 —
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS linux-gcp 4.15.0-1108.122~16.04.1 —
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS linux-hwe 4.15.0-156.163~16.04.1 —
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS linux-oracle 4.15.0-1080.88~16.04.1 —
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS linux-aws +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS linux-azure 4.15.0-1123.136~14.04.1 —

Amazon Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Amazon Linux 2 kernel-livepatch-4.14.238-182.421 1.0-0.amzn2 ALAS2-2021-1685
Amazon Linux 2 perf +8 4.14.238-182.421.amzn2 ALAS2-2021-1685

Advisories 1

References