net: zero-initialize tc skb extension on allocation
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- Low · Low · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 3 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: zero-initialize tc skb extension on allocation Function skb_ext_add() doesn't initialize created skb extension with any value and leaves it up to the user. However, since extension of type TC_SKB_EXT originally contained only single value tc_skb_ext->chain its users used to just assign the chain value without setting whole extension memory to zero first. This assumption changed when TC_SKB_EXT extension was extended with additional fields but not all users were updated to initialize the new fields which leads to use of uninitialized memory afterwards. UBSAN log: [ 778.299821] UBSAN: invalid-load in net/openvswitch/flow.c:899:28 [ 778.301495] load of value 107 is not a valid value for type '_Bool' [ 778.303215] CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 5.12.0-rc7+ #2 [ 778.304933] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.13.0-0-gf21b5a4aeb02-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [ 778.307901] Call Trace: [ 778.308680] <IRQ> [ 778.309358] dump_stack+0xbb/0x107 [ 778.310307] ubsan_epilogue+0x5/0x40 [ 778.311167] __ubsan_handle_load_invalid_value.cold+0x43/0x48 [ 778.312454] ? memset+0x20/0x40 [ 778.313230] ovs_flow_key_extract.cold+0xf/0x14 [openvswitch] [ 778.314532] ovs_vport_receive+0x19e/0x2e0 [openvswitch] [ 778.315749] ? ovs_vport_find_upcall_portid+0x330/0x330 [openvswitch] [ 778.317188] ? create_prof_cpu_mask+0x20/0x20 [ 778.318220] ? arch_stack_walk+0x82/0xf0 [ 778.319153] ? secondary_startup_64_no_verify+0xb0/0xbb [ 778.320399] ? stack_trace_save+0x91/0xc0 [ 778.321362] ? stack_trace_consume_entry+0x160/0x160 [ 778.322517] ? lock_release+0x52e/0x760 [ 778.323444] netdev_frame_hook+0x323/0x610 [openvswitch] [ 778.324668] ? ovs_netdev_get_vport+0xe0/0xe0 [openvswitch] [ 778.325950] __netif_receive_skb_core+0x771/0x2db0 [ 778.327067] ? lock_downgrade+0x6e0/0x6f0 [ 778.328021] ? lock_acquire+0x565/0x720 [ 778.328940] ? generic_xdp_tx+0x4f0/0x4f0 [ 778.329902] ? inet_gro_receive+0x2a7/0x10a0 [ 778.330914] ? lock_downgrade+0x6f0/0x6f0 [ 778.331867] ? udp4_gro_receive+0x4c4/0x13e0 [ 778.332876] ? lock_release+0x52e/0x760 [ 778.333808] ? dev_gro_receive+0xcc8/0x2380 [ 778.334810] ? lock_downgrade+0x6f0/0x6f0 [ 778.335769] __netif_receive_skb_list_core+0x295/0x820 [ 778.336955] ? process_backlog+0x780/0x780 [ 778.337941] ? mlx5e_rep_tc_netdevice_event_unregister+0x20/0x20 [mlx5_core] [ 778.339613] ? seqcount_lockdep_reader_access.constprop.0+0xa7/0xc0 [ 778.341033] ? kvm_clock_get_cycles+0x14/0x20 [ 778.342072] netif_receive_skb_list_internal+0x5f5/0xcb0 [ 778.343288] ? __kasan_kmalloc+0x7a/0x90 [ 778.344234] ? mlx5e_handle_rx_cqe_mpwrq+0x9e0/0x9e0 [mlx5_core] [ 778.345676] ? mlx5e_xmit_xdp_frame_mpwqe+0x14d0/0x14d0 [mlx5_core] [ 778.347140] ? __netif_receive_skb_list_core+0x820/0x820 [ 778.348351] ? mlx5e_post_rx_mpwqes+0xa6/0x25d0 [mlx5_core] [ 778.349688] ? napi_gro_flush+0x26c/0x3c0 [ 778.350641] napi_complete_done+0x188/0x6b0 [ 778.351627] mlx5e_napi_poll+0x373/0x1b80 [mlx5_core] [ 778.352853] __napi_poll+0x9f/0x510 [ 778.353704] ? mlx5_flow_namespace_set_mode+0x260/0x260 [mlx5_core] [ 778.355158] net_rx_action+0x34c/0xa40 [ 778.356060] ? napi_threaded_poll+0x3d0/0x3d0 [ 778.357083] ? sched_clock_cpu+0x18/0x190 [ 778.358041] ? __common_interrupt+0x8e/0x1a0 [ 778.359045] __do_softirq+0x1ce/0x984 [ 778.359938] __irq_exit_rcu+0x137/0x1d0 [ 778.360865] irq_exit_rcu+0xa/0x20 [ 778.361708] common_interrupt+0x80/0xa0 [ 778.362640] </IRQ> [ 778.363212] asm_common_interrupt+0x1e/0x40 [ 778.364204] RIP: 0010:native_safe_halt+0xe/0x10 [ 778.365273] Code: 4f ff ff ff 4c 89 e7 e8 50 3f 40 fe e9 dc fe ff ff 48 89 df e8 43 3f 40 fe eb 90 cc e9 07 00 00 00 0f 00 2d 74 05 62 00 fb f4 <c3> 90 e9 07 00 00 00 0f 00 2d 64 05 62 00 f4 c3 cc cc 0f 1f 44 00 [ 778.369355] RSP: 0018:ffffffff84407e48 EFLAGS: 00000246 [ 778.370570] RAX ---truncated---
Why it matters now
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
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 5.7.15 to before 5.8 | 5.8 | Patch available | CNA |
| Linux | Linux | 5.9 and later | 5.10.42, 5.12.9, 5.13 | Patch available | CNA |
- Linux VendorLinux Affected 5.7.15 to before 5.8 Fixed in 5.8 Patch available CNA
- Linux VendorLinux Affected 5.9 and later Fixed in 5.10.42, 5.12.9, 5.13 Patch available CNA
CPE configurations NVD · 4
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 5.9 to before 5.10.42; 5.11 to before 5.12.9 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* | 5.13 rc1 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* | 5.13 rc2 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* | 5.13 rc3 | Vulnerable | Linux |
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.9 to before 5.10.42; 5.11 to before 5.12.9 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.13 rc1 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.13 rc2 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.13 rc3 Vulnerable ·Linux
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.8
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.10.42, 5.12.9, 5.13
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Not affected: 1 product
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2021-47136
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-7cg4-mp48-cggr
References
More Linux Kernel vulnerabilities
- 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
Sources
- CVE-2021-47136 · CVE Program
- CVE-2021-47136 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-7cg4-mp48-cggr · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2021-47136 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences