iocost: Fix divide-by-zero on donation from low hweight cgroup
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-369.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iocost: Fix divide-by-zero on donation from low hweight cgroup The donation calculation logic assumes that the donor has non-zero after-donation hweight, so the lowest active hweight a donating cgroup can have is 2 so that it can donate 1 while keeping the other 1 for itself. Earlier, we only donated from cgroups with sizable surpluses so this condition was always true. However, with the precise donation algorithm implemented, f1de2439ec43 ("blk-iocost: revamp donation amount determination") made the donation amount calculation exact enabling even low hweight cgroups to donate. This means that in rare occasions, a cgroup with active hweight of 1 can enter donation calculation triggering the following warning and then a divide-by-zero oops. WARNING: CPU: 4 PID: 0 at block/blk-iocost.c:1928 transfer_surpluses.cold+0x0/0x53 [884/94867] ... RIP: 0010:transfer_surpluses.cold+0x0/0x53 Code: 92 ff 48 c7 c7 28 d1 ab b5 65 48 8b 34 25 00 ae 01 00 48 81 c6 90 06 00 00 e8 8b 3f fe ff 48 c7 c0 ea ff ff ff e9 95 ff 92 ff <0f> 0b 48 c7 c7 30 da ab b5 e8 71 3f fe ff 4c 89 e8 4d 85 ed 74 0 4 ... Call Trace: <IRQ> ioc_timer_fn+0x1043/0x1390 call_timer_fn+0xa1/0x2c0 __run_timers.part.0+0x1ec/0x2e0 run_timer_softirq+0x35/0x70 ... iocg: invalid donation weights in /a/b: active=1 donating=1 after=0 Fix it by excluding cgroups w/ active hweight < 2 from donating. Excluding these extreme low hweight donations shouldn't affect work conservation in any meaningful way.
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
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.10.88, 5.15.11, 5.16
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
Not affected: 4 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2021-47584
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-9777-6rgr-2wc6
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-2021-47584 · CVE Program
- CVE-2021-47584 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-9777-6rgr-2wc6 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2021-47584 · 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