CVE-2021-47136: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: zero-initialize tc skb extension on allocation Function skb_ext

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: zero-initialize tc skb extension on allocation Function skb_ext_add() doesn't initial

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: zero-initialize tc skb extension on allocation Function skb_ext_add() doesn't initialize created skb extension with any value and leaves it up to the user. However, since extension of type TC_SKB_EXT originally contained only single value tc_skb_ext->chain its users used to just assign the chain value without setting whole extension memory to zero first. This assumption changed when TC_SKB_EXT extension was extended with additional fields but not all users were updated to initialize the new fields which leads to use of uninitialized memory afterwards. UBSAN log: [ 778.299821] UBSAN: invalid-load in net/openvswitch/flow.c:899:28 [ 778.301495] load of value 107 is not a valid value for type '_Bool' [ 778.303215] CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 5.12.0-rc7+ #2 [ 778.304933] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.13.0-0-gf21b5a4aeb02-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [ 778.307901] Call Trace: [ 778.308680] <IRQ> [ 778.309358] dump_stack+0xbb/0x107 [ 778.310307] ubsan_epilogue+0x5/0x40 [ 778.311167] __ubsan_handle_load_invalid_value.cold+0x43/0x48 [ 778.312454] ? memset

Description from the National Vulnerability Database, published by 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

What it means for a small business

Linux is on the computers, phones or browsers your team uses every day. Turn on automatic updates and restart: most of these fixes only take effect after a restart.

How likely is an attack? The Exploit Prediction Scoring System, run by FIRST (the global association of security response teams), puts the odds of this one being exploited in the next 30 days at 0.54%, higher than 45% of CVEs. That’s low, but low isn’t zero, and the odds jump the day someone publishes an exploit. Scored October 29, 2026, updated daily.

Check your own setup

Website check: reads what your site runs from the outside (WordPress version, plugins it can see, old server software) and matches it against this database.
Server check: what your web server says about itself, and whether that version has known flaws.

Sources

Part of the Huttenlocher Technologies vulnerability database, refreshed twice a day from CISA and the NVD. The title, category and plain-language guidance are ours; check the linked record before acting on a detail. This is general guidance, not a review of your systems.

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