CVE-2021-47557: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: sch_ets: don't peek at classes beyond 'nbands' when the number of DRR classes d

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: sch_ets: don't peek at classes beyond 'nbands' when the number of DRR classes d

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: sch_ets: don't peek at classes beyond 'nbands' when the number of DRR classes decreases, the round-robin active list can contain elements that have already been freed in ets_qdisc_change(). As a consequence, it's possible to see a NULL dereference crash, caused by the attempt to call cl->qdisc->ops->peek(cl->qdisc) when cl->qdisc is NULL: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000018 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI CPU: 1 PID: 910 Comm: mausezahn Not tainted 5.16.0-rc1+ #475 Hardware name: Red Hat KVM, BIOS 1.11.1-4.module+el8.1.0+4066+0f1aadab 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:ets_qdisc_dequeue+0x129/0x2c0 [sch_ets] Code: c5 01 41 39 ad e4 02 00 00 0f 87 18 ff ff ff 49 8b 85 c0 02 00 00 49 39 c4 0f 84 ba 00 00 00 49 8b ad c0 02 00 00 48 8b 7d 10 <48> 8b 47 18 48 8b 40 38 0f ae e8 ff d0 48 89 c3 48 85 c0 0f 84 9d RSP: 0000:ffffbb36c0b5fdd8 EFLAGS: 00010287 RAX: ffff956678efed30 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 0000000000000002 RSI: ffffffff9b938dc9 RDI: 0000000000000000

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 0.24%, higher than 15% of CVEs. That’s low, but low isn’t zero, and the odds jump the day someone publishes an exploit. Scored October 31, 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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