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Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2021-46938

high Nessus Plugin ID 248972

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Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

 - In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dm rq: fix double free of blk_mq_tag_set in dev remove after table load fails When loading a device-mapper table for a request-based mapped device, and the allocation/initialization of the blk_mq_tag_set for the device fails, a following device remove will cause a double free. E.g. (dmesg): device-mapper: core: Cannot initialize queue for request-based dm-mq mapped device device-mapper: ioctl: unable to set up device queue for new table.
 Unable to handle kernel pointer dereference in virtual kernel address space Failing address:
 0305e098835de000 TEID: 0305e098835de803 Fault in home space mode while using kernel ASCE.
 AS:000000025efe0007 R3:0000000000000024 Oops: 0038 ilc:3 [#1] SMP Modules linked in: ... lots of modules ... Supported: Yes, External CPU: 0 PID: 7348 Comm: multipathd Kdump: loaded Tainted: G W X 5.3.18-53-default #1 SLE15-SP3 Hardware name: IBM 8561 T01 7I2 (LPAR) Krnl PSW : 0704e00180000000 000000025e368eca (kfree+0x42/0x330) R:0 T:1 IO:1 EX:1 Key:0 M:1 W:0 P:0 AS:3 CC:2 PM:0 RI:0 EA:3 Krnl GPRS: 000000000000004a 000000025efe5230 c1773200d779968d 0000000000000000 000000025e520270 000000025e8d1b40 0000000000000003 00000007aae10000 000000025e5202a2 0000000000000001 c1773200d779968d 0305e098835de640 00000007a8170000 000003ff80138650 000000025e5202a2 000003e00396faa8 Krnl Code:
 000000025e368eb8: c4180041e100 lgrl %r1,25eba50b8 000000025e368ebe: ecba06b93a55 risbg %r11,%r10,6,185,58 #000000025e368ec4: e3b010000008 ag %r11,0(%r1) >000000025e368eca: e310b0080004 lg %r1,8(%r11) 000000025e368ed0: a7110001 tmll %r1,1 000000025e368ed4: a7740129 brc 7,25e369126 000000025e368ed8:
 e320b0080004 lg %r2,8(%r11) 000000025e368ede: b904001b lgr %r1,%r11 Call Trace: [<000000025e368eca>] kfree+0x42/0x330 [<000000025e5202a2>] blk_mq_free_tag_set+0x72/0xb8 [<000003ff801316a8>] dm_mq_cleanup_mapped_device+0x38/0x50 [dm_mod] [<000003ff80120082>] free_dev+0x52/0xd0 [dm_mod] [<000003ff801233f0>] __dm_destroy+0x150/0x1d0 [dm_mod] [<000003ff8012bb9a>] dev_remove+0x162/0x1c0 [dm_mod] [<000003ff8012a988>] ctl_ioctl+0x198/0x478 [dm_mod] [<000003ff8012ac8a>] dm_ctl_ioctl+0x22/0x38 [dm_mod] [<000000025e3b11ee>] ksys_ioctl+0xbe/0xe0 [<000000025e3b127a>] __s390x_sys_ioctl+0x2a/0x40 [<000000025e8c15ac>] system_call+0xd8/0x2c8 Last Breaking-Event-Address: [<000000025e52029c>] blk_mq_free_tag_set+0x6c/0xb8 Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception: panic_on_oops When allocation/initialization of the blk_mq_tag_set fails in dm_mq_init_request_queue(), it is uninitialized/freed, but the pointer is not reset to NULL; so when dev_remove() later gets into dm_mq_cleanup_mapped_device() it sees the pointer and tries to uninitialize and free it again. Fix this by setting the pointer to NULL in dm_mq_init_request_queue() error-handling. Also set it to NULL in dm_mq_cleanup_mapped_device(). (CVE-2021-46938)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-46938

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 248972

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2021_46938.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 8/12/2025

Updated: 8/12/2025

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 4.9

Temporal Score: 3.6

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2021-46938

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 6.8

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-intel-5.13, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oracle-5.3, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe-edge, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp-5.19, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-5.19, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-riscv-5.11, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-riscv, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gke-5.15, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem-5.17, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oracle-5.0, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oracle-5.13, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp-5.11, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-aws-5.11, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-aws-5.3, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-edge, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-fde, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-aws-6.2, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-fips, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gkeop-5.4, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe-6.2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe-5.11, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-allwinner-5.19, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-aws-5.19, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-aws-5.13, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gke, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-riscv-5.8, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-starfive-5.19, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp-5.3, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-raspi-realtime, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-aws-5.8, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-nvidia-6.2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-aws-5.0, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem-5.13, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem-6.0, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-5.3, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-aws-fips, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp-6.2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-6.2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-5.11, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem-5.10, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp-fips, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-raspi2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gke-5.4, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-fips, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-intel-iot-realtime, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-5.8, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe-5.19, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp-5.8, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem-5.6, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe-5.8, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp-5.13, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oracle-5.11, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-realtime, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem-6.1, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-5.13, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem-5.14, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-fde-5.19, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-fde-6.2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gke-4.15, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oracle-5.8, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe-5.13, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-riscv-5.19, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-starfive-6.2

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 1/28/2022

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2021-46938