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TI-2021-21627 Aliases CVE-2021-46961GHSA-p2qc-mv5g-9gcr

irqchip/gic-v3: Do not enable irqs when handling spurious interrups

Priority LOW 24Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Local
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
—
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
None · None · High
Fix status
Partial Red Hat: 3 without a fix

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CISA ADP. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: irqchip/gic-v3: Do not enable irqs when handling spurious interrups We triggered the following error while running our 4.19 kernel with the pseudo-NMI patches backported to it: [ 14.816231] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 14.816231] kernel BUG at irq.c:99! [ 14.816232] Internal error: Oops - BUG: 0 [#1] SMP [ 14.816232] Process swapper/0 (pid: 0, stack limit = 0x(____ptrval____)) [ 14.816233] CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G O 4.19.95.aarch64 #14 [ 14.816233] Hardware name: evb (DT) [ 14.816234] pstate: 80400085 (Nzcv daIf +PAN -UAO) [ 14.816234] pc : asm_nmi_enter+0x94/0x98 [ 14.816235] lr : asm_nmi_enter+0x18/0x98 [ 14.816235] sp : ffff000008003c50 [ 14.816235] pmr_save: 00000070 [ 14.816237] x29: ffff000008003c50 x28: ffff0000095f56c0 [ 14.816238] x27: 0000000000000000 x26: ffff000008004000 [ 14.816239] x25: 00000000015e0000 x24: ffff8008fb916000 [ 14.816240] x23: 0000000020400005 x22: ffff0000080817cc [ 14.816241] x21: ffff000008003da0 x20: 0000000000000060 [ 14.816242] x19: 00000000000003ff x18: ffffffffffffffff [ 14.816243] x17: 0000000000000008 x16: 003d090000000000 [ 14.816244] x15: ffff0000095ea6c8 x14: ffff8008fff5ab40 [ 14.816244] x13: ffff8008fff58b9d x12: 0000000000000000 [ 14.816245] x11: ffff000008c8a200 x10: 000000008e31fca5 [ 14.816246] x9 : ffff000008c8a208 x8 : 000000000000000f [ 14.816247] x7 : 0000000000000004 x6 : ffff8008fff58b9e [ 14.816248] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000080000000 [ 14.816249] x3 : 0000000000000000 x2 : 0000000080000000 [ 14.816250] x1 : 0000000000120000 x0 : ffff0000095f56c0 [ 14.816251] Call trace: [ 14.816251] asm_nmi_enter+0x94/0x98 [ 14.816251] el1_irq+0x8c/0x180 (IRQ C) [ 14.816252] gic_handle_irq+0xbc/0x2e4 [ 14.816252] el1_irq+0xcc/0x180 (IRQ B) [ 14.816253] arch_timer_handler_virt+0x38/0x58 [ 14.816253] handle_percpu_devid_irq+0x90/0x240 [ 14.816253] generic_handle_irq+0x34/0x50 [ 14.816254] __handle_domain_irq+0x68/0xc0 [ 14.816254] gic_handle_irq+0xf8/0x2e4 [ 14.816255] el1_irq+0xcc/0x180 (IRQ A) [ 14.816255] arch_cpu_idle+0x34/0x1c8 [ 14.816255] default_idle_call+0x24/0x44 [ 14.816256] do_idle+0x1d0/0x2c8 [ 14.816256] cpu_startup_entry+0x28/0x30 [ 14.816256] rest_init+0xb8/0xc8 [ 14.816257] start_kernel+0x4c8/0x4f4 [ 14.816257] Code: 940587f1 d5384100 b9401001 36a7fd01 (d4210000) [ 14.816258] Modules linked in: start_dp(O) smeth(O) [ 15.103092] ---[ end trace 701753956cb14aa8 ]--- [ 15.103093] Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt [ 15.103099] SMP: stopping secondary CPUs [ 15.103100] Kernel Offset: disabled [ 15.103100] CPU features: 0x36,a2400218 [ 15.103100] Memory Limit: none which is cause by a 'BUG_ON(in_nmi())' in nmi_enter(). From the call trace, we can find three interrupts (noted A, B, C above): interrupt (A) is preempted by (B), which is further interrupted by (C). Subsequent investigations show that (B) results in nmi_enter() being called, but that it actually is a spurious interrupt. Furthermore, interrupts are reenabled in the context of (B), and (C) fires with NMI priority. We end-up with a nested NMI situation, something we definitely do not want to (and cannot) handle. The bug here is that spurious interrupts should never result in any state change, and we should just return to the interrupted context. Moving the handling of spurious interrupts as early as possible in the GICv3 handler fixes this issue. [maz: rewrote commit message, corrected Fixes: tag]

Why it matters now

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00235 14th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Partial Linux (Linux): 5.4.118, 5.10.36, 5.11.20 +2Red Hat: 3 without a fix

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
None
Automatable
No
Technical impact
Partial

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
LinuxLinux5.1 and later5.4.118, 5.10.36, 5.11.20, 5.12.3, 5.13Patch availableCNA
  • Linux VendorLinux Affected 5.1 and later Fixed in 5.4.118, 5.10.36, 5.11.20, 5.12.3, 5.13 Patch available CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 1

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*5.1 to before 5.4.118; 5.5 to before 5.10.36; 5.11 to before 5.11.20; 5.12 to before 5.12.3VulnerableLinux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.1 to before 5.4.118; 5.5 to before 5.10.36; 5.11 to before 5.11.20; 5.12 to before 5.12.3 Vulnerable ·Linux

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.4.118, 5.10.36, 5.11.20, 5.12.3, 5.13

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →

ProductStatusPlan or fix
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6AffectedNo fix planned: Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7AffectedNo fix planned: Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8AffectedNo fix yet
Not affected: 1 product
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2021-46961
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-p2qc-mv5g-9gcr

References

  • TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2021-05514 Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACE KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.3
See all 15278 →

Sources