Linux Kernel up to 5.14.13 request_irq null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in Linux Kernel up to 4.14.251/4.19.212/5.4.154/5.10.74/5.14.13. This issue affects the function request_irq. The manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2021-47436. There is not any exploit available. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 4.14.251/4.19.212/5.4.154/5.10.74/5.14.13. It has been rated as critical. This issue affects the function request_irq. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. Impacted is availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: usb: musb: dsps: Fix the probe error path Commit 7c75bde329d7 ("usb: musb: musb_dsps: request_irq() after initializing musb") has inverted the calls to dsps_setup_optional_vbus_irq() and dsps_create_musb_pdev() without updating correctly the error path. dsps_create_musb_pdev() allocates and registers a new platform device which must be unregistered and freed with platform_device_unregister(), and this is missing upon dsps_setup_optional_vbus_irq() error. While on the master branch it seems not to trigger any issue, I observed a kernel crash because of a NULL pointer dereference with a v5.10.70 stable kernel where the patch mentioned above was backported. With this kernel version, -EPROBE_DEFER is returned the first time dsps_setup_optional_vbus_irq() is called which triggers the probe to error out without unregistering the platform device. Unfortunately, on the Beagle Bone Black Wireless, the platform device still living in the system is being used by the USB Ethernet gadget driver, which during the boot phase triggers the crash. My limited knowledge of the musb world prevents me to revert this commit which was sent to silence a robot warning which, as far as I understand, does not make sense. The goal of this patch was to prevent an IRQ to fire before the platform device being registered. I think this cannot ever happen due to the fact that enabling the interrupts is done by the ->enable() callback of the platform musb device, and this platform device must be already registered in order for the core or any other user to use this callback. Hence, I decided to fix the error path, which might prevent future errors on mainline kernels while also fixing older ones.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2021-47436 since 05/21/2024. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 276407 (TencentOS Server 4: kernel (TSSA-2025:0047)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 4.14.252, 4.19.213, 5.4.155, 5.10.75 or 5.14.14 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 5ed60a430fb5/e923bce31ffe/9ab5d539bc97/9d89e2871167/ff9249aab398/c2115b2b1642 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (276407). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 4.14.251
• 4.19.212
• 5.4.154
• 5.10.0
• 5.10.1
• 5.10.2
• 5.10.3
• 5.10.4
• 5.10.5
• 5.10.6
• 5.10.7
• 5.10.8
• 5.10.9
• 5.10.10
• 5.10.11
• 5.10.12
• 5.10.13
• 5.10.14
• 5.10.15
• 5.10.16
• 5.10.17
• 5.10.18
• 5.10.19
• 5.10.20
• 5.10.21
• 5.10.22
• 5.10.23
• 5.10.24
• 5.10.25
• 5.10.26
• 5.10.27
• 5.10.28
• 5.10.29
• 5.10.30
• 5.10.31
• 5.10.32
• 5.10.33
• 5.10.34
• 5.10.35
• 5.10.36
• 5.10.37
• 5.10.38
• 5.10.39
• 5.10.40
• 5.10.41
• 5.10.42
• 5.10.43
• 5.10.44
• 5.10.45
• 5.10.46
• 5.10.47
• 5.10.48
• 5.10.49
• 5.10.50
• 5.10.51
• 5.10.52
• 5.10.53
• 5.10.54
• 5.10.55
• 5.10.56
• 5.10.57
• 5.10.58
• 5.10.59
• 5.10.60
• 5.10.61
• 5.10.62
• 5.10.63
• 5.10.64
• 5.10.65
• 5.10.66
• 5.10.67
• 5.10.68
• 5.10.69
• 5.10.70
• 5.10.71
• 5.10.72
• 5.10.73
• 5.10.74
• 5.14.0
• 5.14.1
• 5.14.2
• 5.14.3
• 5.14.4
• 5.14.5
• 5.14.6
• 5.14.7
• 5.14.8
• 5.14.9
• 5.14.10
• 5.14.11
• 5.14.12
• 5.14.13

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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