CVE-2021-46936 - CVE House
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Status published High CVE-2021-46936

net: fix use-after-free in tw_timer_handler

Vulnerability Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: fix use-after-free in tw_timer_handler A real world panic issue was found as follow in Linux 5.4. BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffde49a863de28 PGD 7e6fe62067 P4D 7e6fe62067 PUD 7e6fe63067 PMD f51e064067 PTE 0 RIP: 0010:tw_timer_handler+0x20/0x40 Call Trace: <IRQ> call_timer_fn+0x2b/0x120 run_timer_softirq+0x1ef/0x450 __do_softirq+0x10d/0x2b8 irq_exit+0xc7/0xd0 smp_apic_timer_interrupt+0x68/0x120 apic_timer_interrupt+0xf/0x20 This issue was also reported since 2017 in the thread [1], unfortunately, the issue was still can be reproduced after fixing DCCP. The ipv4_mib_exit_net is called before tcp_sk_exit_batch when a net namespace is destroyed since tcp_sk_ops is registered befrore ipv4_mib_ops, which means tcp_sk_ops is in the front of ipv4_mib_ops in the list of pernet_list. There will be a use-after-free on net->mib.net_statistics in tw_timer_handler after ipv4_mib_exit_net if there are some inflight time-wait timers. This bug is not introduced by commit f2bf415cfed7 ("mib: add net to NET_ADD_STATS_BH") since the net_statistics is a global variable instead of dynamic allocation and freeing. Actually, commit 61a7e26028b9 ("mib: put net statistics on struct net") introduces the bug since it put net statistics on struct net and free it when net namespace is destroyed. Moving init_ipv4_mibs() to the front of tcp_init() to fix this bug and replace pr_crit() with panic() since continuing is meaningless when init_ipv4_mibs() fails. [1] https://groups.google.com/g/syzkaller/c/p1tn-_Kc6l4/m/smuL_FMAAgAJ?pli=1

Impact Analysis

Refer to official advisory for detailed impact metrics.

Remediation

Ensure systems are updated to the latest vendor-supplied patch levels.

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Credits & Attribution

No credits recorded in the NVD database.

Affected Vendor

Affected Software

Linux
Vulnerable Versions:
61a7e26028b94805fd686a6dc9dbd9941f8f19b0, 2.6.27, 0, 4.4.298, 4.9.296, 4.14.261, 4.19.224, 5.4.170, 5.10.90, 5.15.13, 5.16

Timeline

Official Publish: February 27th, 2024
Last Modified: May 11th, 2026
Added to House: July 21st, 2026

CVSS Vectors

V3: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Weaknesses (CWE)

No CWE data available

MITRE ATT&CK TTPs

No associated TTPs found for this vulnerability.