CVE-2021-47238: net: ipv4: fix memory leak in ip_mc_add1_src

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2024-05-21 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-400

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: ipv4: fix memory leak in ip_mc_add1_src BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xffff888101bc4c00 (size 32): comm "syz-executor527", pid 360, jiffies 4294807421 (age 19.329s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ac 14 14 bb 00 00 02 00 ................ backtrace: [<00000000f17c5244>] kmalloc include/linux/slab.h:558 [inline] [<00000000f17c5244>] kzalloc include/linux/slab.h:688 [inline] [<00000000f17c5244>] ip_mc_add1_src net/ipv4/igmp.c:1971 [inline] [<00000000f17c5244>] ip_mc_add_src+0x95f/0xdb0 net/ipv4/igmp.c:2095 [<000000001cb99709>] ip_mc_source+0x84c/0xea0 net/ipv4/igmp.c:2416 [<0000000052cf19ed>] do_ip_setsockopt net/ipv4/ip_sockglue.c:1294 [inline] [<0000000052cf19ed>] ip_setsockopt+0x114b/0x30c0 net/ipv4/ip_sockglue.c:1423 [<00000000477edfbc>] raw_setsockopt+0x13d/0x170 net/ipv4/raw.c:857 [<00000000e75ca9bb>] __sys_setsockopt+0x158/0x270 net/socket.c:2117 [<00000000bdb993a8>] __do_sys_setsockopt net/socket.c:2128 [inline] [<00000000bdb993a8>] __se_sys_setsockopt net/socket.c:2125 [inline] [<00000000bdb993a8>] __x64_sys_setsockopt+0xba/0x150 net/socket.c:2125 [<000000006a1ffdbd>] do_syscall_64+0x40/0x80 arch/x86/entry/common.c:47 [<00000000b11467c4>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae In commit 24803f38a5c0 ("igmp: do not remove igmp souce list info when set link down"), the ip_mc_clear_src() in ip_mc_destroy_dev() was removed, because it was also called in igmpv3_clear_delrec(). Rough callgraph: inetdev_destroy -> ip_mc_destroy_dev -> igmpv3_clear_delrec -> ip_mc_clear_src -> RCU_INIT_POINTER(dev->ip_ptr, NULL) However, ip_mc_clear_src() called in igmpv3_clear_delrec() doesn't release in_dev->mc_list->sources. And RCU_INIT_POINTER() assigns the NULL to dev->ip_ptr. As a result, in_dev cannot be obtained through inetdev_by_index() and then in_dev->mc_list->sources cannot be released by ip_mc_del1_src() in the sock_close. Rough call sequence goes like: sock_close -> __sock_release -> inet_release -> ip_mc_drop_socket -> inetdev_by_index -> ip_mc_leave_src -> ip_mc_del_src -> ip_mc_del1_src So we still need to call ip_mc_clear_src() in ip_mc_destroy_dev() to free in_dev->mc_list->sources.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 3.2.87 before 3.3; from 3.16.42 before 3.17; from 4.9 before 4.9.274; from 4.10 before 4.14.238; from 4.15 before 4.19.196; from 4.20 before 5.4.128 — fixed in 3.17, 3.3, 4.14.238, 4.19.196, 4.9.274, 5.10.46

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 3.17, 3.3, 4.14.238, 4.19.196. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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