i2c: virtio: disable timeout handling

Summary

CVECVE-2021-47561
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerLinux
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2024-05-24 15:15:20 UTC
Updated2026-08-04 10:17:09 UTC
DescriptionIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: i2c: virtio: disable timeout handling If a timeout is hit, it can result is incorrect data on the I2C bus and/or memory corruptions in the guest since the device can still be operating on the buffers it was given while the guest has freed them. Here is, for example, the start of a slub_debug splat which was triggered on the next transfer after one transfer was forced to timeout by setting a breakpoint in the backend (rust-vmm/vhost-device): BUG kmalloc-1k (Not tainted): Poison overwritten First byte 0x1 instead of 0x6b Allocated in virtio_i2c_xfer+0x65/0x35c age=350 cpu=0 pid=29 __kmalloc+0xc2/0x1c9 virtio_i2c_xfer+0x65/0x35c __i2c_transfer+0x429/0x57d i2c_transfer+0x115/0x134 i2cdev_ioctl_rdwr+0x16a/0x1de i2cdev_ioctl+0x247/0x2ed vfs_ioctl+0x21/0x30 sys_ioctl+0xb18/0xb41 Freed in virtio_i2c_xfer+0x32e/0x35c age=244 cpu=0 pid=29 kfree+0x1bd/0x1cc virtio_i2c_xfer+0x32e/0x35c __i2c_transfer+0x429/0x57d i2c_transfer+0x115/0x134 i2cdev_ioctl_rdwr+0x16a/0x1de i2cdev_ioctl+0x247/0x2ed vfs_ioctl+0x21/0x30 sys_ioctl+0xb18/0xb41 There is no simple fix for this (the driver would have to always create bounce buffers and hold on to them until the device eventually returns the buffers), so just disable the timeout support for now.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 7.8 HIGH from [email protected]

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

EPSS: 0.002020000 probability, percentile 0.103220000 (date 2026-08-05)

Problem Types: CWE-416


VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Primary7.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
3.1416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67Secondary7.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
3.1CNADECLARED7.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

NVD Known Affected Configurations (CPE 2.3)

TypeVendorProductVersionUpdateEditionLanguage
Operating System Linux Linux Kernel All All All All
Operating System Linux Linux Kernel 5.16 rc1 All All
Operating System Linux Linux Kernel 5.16 rc2 All All

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Linux Linux affected 3cfc88380413d20f777dc6648a38f683962e52bf cc432b0727ce404cc13e8f6b5ce29f412c3f9f1f git Not specified
CNA Linux Linux affected 3cfc88380413d20f777dc6648a38f683962e52bf 84e1d0bf1d7121759622dabf8fbef4c99ad597c5 git Not specified
CNA Linux Linux affected 5.15 Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 5.15 semver Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 5.15.6 5.15.* semver Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 5.16 * original_commit_for_fix Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
git.kernel.org/stable/c/cc432b0727ce404cc13e8f6b5ce29f412c3f9f1f af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 git.kernel.org Patch
git.kernel.org/stable/c/84e1d0bf1d7121759622dabf8fbef4c99ad597c5 af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 git.kernel.org Patch
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

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