Reference page — cumulative record through Wednesday, August 19, 2026 UTC. Reference pages update as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record.
Linux Linux — usb: gadget: f_fs: Clear ffs_eventfd in ffs_data_clear.
AV AC PR UI S C I A CVSS EPSS %ile KEV
L L L N U N N H 5.5 .0024 15.9 —
AFFECTED
Product Versions Fixed
Linux 5e33f6fdf735cda1d4580fe6f1878da05718fe73 – —
Linux 4.0 – 4.4.298
TIMELINE
Feb 25 Reserved by Linux
Feb 27 Published (CNA: Linux)
Aug 4 RESCORED — CVE-2021-46933 (Linux). CVSS 7.8 → 5.5 (NVD).
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
usb: gadget: f_fs: Clear ffs_eventfd in ffs_data_clear.
ffs_data_clear is indirectly called from both ffs_fs_kill_sb and
ffs_ep0_release, so it ends up being called twice when userland closes ep0
and then unmounts f_fs.
If userland provided an eventfd along with function's USB descriptors, it
ends up calling eventfd_ctx_put as many times, causing a refcount
underflow.
NULL-ify ffs_eventfd to prevent these extraneous eventfd_ctx_put calls.
Also, set epfiles to NULL right after de-allocating it, for readability.
For completeness, ffs_data_clear actually ends up being called thrice, the
last call being before the whole ffs structure gets freed, so when this
specific sequence happens there is a second underflow happening (but not
being reported):
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing# modprobe usb_f_fs
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing# echo ffs_data_clear > set_ftrace_filter
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing# echo function > current_tracer
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing# echo 1 > tracing_on
(setup gadget, run and kill function userland process, teardown gadget)
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing# echo 0 > tracing_on
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing# cat trace
smartcard-openp-436 [000] ..... 1946.208786: ffs_data_clear <-ffs_data_closed
smartcard-openp-431 [000] ..... 1946.279147: ffs_data_clear <-ffs_data_closed
smartcard-openp-431 [000] .n... 1946.905512: ffs_data_clear <-ffs_data_put
Warning output corresponding to above trace:
[ 1946.284139] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 431 at lib/refcount.c:28 refcount_warn_saturate+0x110/0x15c
[ 1946.293094] refcount_t: underflow; use-after-free.
[ 1946.298164] Modules linked in: usb_f_ncm(E) u_ether(E) usb_f_fs(E) hci_uart(E) btqca(E) btrtl(E) btbcm(E) btintel(E) bluetooth(E) nls_ascii(E) nls_cp437(E) vfat(E) fat(E) bcm2835_v4l2(CE) bcm2835_mmal_vchiq(CE) videobuf2_vmalloc(E) videobuf2_memops(E) sha512_generic(E) videobuf2_v4l2(E) sha512_arm(E) videobuf2_common(E) videodev(E) cpufreq_dt(E) snd_bcm2835(CE) brcmfmac(E) mc(E) vc4(E) ctr(E) brcmutil(E) snd_soc_core(E) snd_pcm_dmaengine(E) drbg(E) snd_pcm(E) snd_timer(E) snd(E) soundcore(E) drm_kms_helper(E) cec(E) ansi_cprng(E) rc_core(E) syscopyarea(E) raspberrypi_cpufreq(E) sysfillrect(E) sysimgblt(E) cfg80211(E) max17040_battery(OE) raspberrypi_hwmon(E) fb_sys_fops(E) regmap_i2c(E) ecdh_generic(E) rfkill(E) ecc(E) bcm2835_rng(E) rng_core(E) vchiq(CE) leds_gpio(E) libcomposite(E) fuse(E) configfs(E) ip_tables(E) x_tables(E) autofs4(E) ext4(E) crc16(E) mbcache(E) jbd2(E) crc32c_generic(E) sdhci_iproc(E) sdhci_pltfm(E) sdhci(E)
[ 1946.399633] CPU: 0 PID: 431 Comm: smartcard-openp Tainted: G C OE 5.15.0-1-rpi #1 Debian 5.15.3-1
[ 1946.417950] Hardware name: BCM2835
[ 1946.425442] Backtrace:
[ 1946.432048] [<c08d60a0>] (dump_backtrace) from [<c08d62ec>] (show_stack+0x20/0x24)
[ 1946.448226] r7:00000009 r6:0000001c r5:c04a948c r4:c0a64e2c
[ 1946.458412] [<c08d62cc>] (show_stack) from [<c08d9ae0>] (dump_stack+0x28/0x30)
[ 1946.470380] [<c08d9ab8>] (dump_stack) from [<c0123500>] (__warn+0xe8/0x154)
[ 1946.482067] r5:c04a948c r4:c0a71dc8
[ 1946.490184] [<c0123418>] (__warn) from [<c08d6948>] (warn_slowpath_fmt+0xa0/0xe4)
[ 1946.506758] r7:00000009 r6:0000001c r5:c0a71dc8 r4:c0a71e04
[ 1946.517070] [<c08d68ac>] (warn_slowpath_fmt) from [<c04a948c>] (refcount_warn_saturate+0x110/0x15c)
[ 1946.535309] r8:c0100224 r7:c0dfcb84 r6:ffffffff r5:c3b84c00 r4:c24a17c0
[ 1946.546708] [<c04a937c>] (refcount_warn_saturate) from [<c0380134>] (eventfd_ctx_put+0x48/0x74)
[ 1946.564476] [<c03800ec>] (eventfd_ctx_put) from [<bf5464e8>] (ffs_data_clear+0xd0/0x118 [usb_f_fs])
[ 1946.582664] r5:c3b84c00 r4:c2695b00
[ 1946.590668] [<bf546418>] (ffs_data_clear [usb_f_fs]) from [<bf547cc0>] (ffs_data_closed+0x9c/0x150 [usb_f_fs])
[ 1946.609608] r5:bf54d014 r4:c2695b00
[ 1946.617522] [<bf547c24>] (ffs_data_closed [usb_f_fs]) from [<bf547da0>] (ffs_fs_kill_sb+0x2c/0x30 [usb_f_fs])
[ 1946.636217] r7:c0dfcb
---truncated---
Lifecycle
Complete event history — 3 events, chronological
| Date | Event | Detail |
| February 25, 2024 | Reserved | Reserved by Linux |
| February 27, 2024 | Published | Published (CNA: Linux) |
| August 4, 2026 | RESCORED | RESCORED — CVE-2021-46933 (Linux). CVSS 7.8 → 5.5 (NVD). |
Affected
Affected products and packages — 2 rows
| Vendor | Product / Package | Ecosystem | Version introduced | Fixed |
| Linux | Linux | — | 5e33f6fdf735cda1d4580fe6f1878da05718fe73 | — |
| Linux | Linux | — | 4.0 | 4.4.298 |
About this page
This is a reference page, not a dated page of record. It assembles the complete lifecycle of CVE-2021-46933 from the CVE Program record, NVD enrichment, the CISA KEV catalog, EPSS, and OSV advisories. The box score's numbers (CVSS, EPSS, KEV status) are current as of Wednesday, August 19, 2026 UTC and are re-derived as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record. The authoritative source for this identifier is cve.org.