Kernel crash via invalid error-handler pointer dereference
Published May 21, 2024 · Updated May 23, 2026
NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel SCSI core in affected releases allows local users to crash the kernel during SCSI host cleanup. When error-handler thread creation fails, scsi_host_alloc leaves shost->ehandler as an ERR_PTR value, and scsi_host_dev_release passes it to kthread_stop because it checks only for NULL. The failure path requires local low-privileged access and a SCSI host allocation whose error-handler thread cannot start; the invalid read produces a kernel oops and service interruption.
Summary
What happened
NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel SCSI core in affected releases allows local users to crash the kernel during SCSI host cleanup. When error-handler thread creation fails, scsi_host_alloc leaves shost->ehandler as an ERR_PTR value, and scsi_host_dev_release passes it to kthread_stop because it checks only for NULL. The failure path requires local low-privileged access and a SCSI host allocation whose error-handler thread cannot start; the invalid read produces a kernel oops and service interruption.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2021-47337
- Published
- May 21, 2024
- Updated
- May 23, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-476, T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 21, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 23, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=2dc85045ae65b9302a1d2e2ddd7ce4c030153a6a <e1bd3fac2baa3d5c04375980c1d5263a3335af92
- Affected versionversion=4.14.237 <4.14.240
- Affected versionversion=4.19.195 <4.19.198
- Affected versionversion=45d83db4728127944b237c0c8248987df9d478e7 <8e4212ecf0713dd57d0e3209a66201da582149b1
- Affected versionversion=4.9.273 <4.9.276
- Affected versionversion=5.10.44 <5.10.52
- Affected versionversion=5.12.11 <5.12.19
- Affected versionversion=5.13
- Affected versionversion=5.4.126 <5.4.134
- Affected versionversion=66a834d092930cf41d809c0e989b13cd6f9ca006 <93aa71ad7379900e61c8adff6a710a4c18c7c99b
- Affected versionversion=66a834d092930cf41d809c0e989b13cd6f9ca006 <c1671d2d2ef8a84837eea1b4d99ca0c6a66fb691
- Affected versionversion=79296e292d67fa7b5fb8d8c27343683e823872c8 <887bfae2732b5b02a86a859fd239d34f7ff93c05
- Affected versionversion=7a696ce1d5d16a33a6cd6400bbcc0339b2460e11 <ea518b70ed5e4598c8d706f37fc16f7b06e440bd
- Affected versionversion=8958181c1663e24a13434448e7d6b96b5d04900a <d2f0b960d07e52bb664471b4de0ed8b08c636b3a
- Affected versionversion=db08ce595dd64ea9859f7d088b51cbfc8e685c66 <f3d0a109240c9bed5c60d819014786be3a2fe515
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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