What is CVE-2022-2153?

CVE-2022-2153 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2022-08-31.

How severe is CVE-2022-2153?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.

Is CVE-2022-2153 known to be exploited?

1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

NULL pointer dereference in Linux Kernel

CVE-2022-2153

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel’s KVM when attempting to set a SynIC IRQ. This issue makes it possible for a misbehaving VMM to write to SYNIC/STIMER MSRs, causing a NULL pointer dereference. This flaw allows an unprivileged local attacker on the host to issue specific ioctl calls, causing a kernel oops condition that results in a denial of service.

Published 2022-08-31 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.005 (38.0th percentile), scored 2026-10-01.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 38th percentile — 38.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.005 · newest: 0.005 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Linux Kernel
Debian Linux — versions 10.0
Fedoraproject Fedora — versions 36
Red Hat Enterprise Linux — versions 6.0, 7.0, 8.0
Kernel — versions kernel 5.18

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-476 — NULL Pointer Dereference

Public proof-of-concept exploits

ARPSyndicate/cvemon

References

bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi (Patch, Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)
www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2022/06/22/1 (Exploit, Patch, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/7ec37d1cbe17d8189d9562178d8b29167fe1c31a (Patch, Third Party Advisory)
github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/00b5f37189d24ac3ed46cb7f11742094778c46ce (Patch, Third Party Advisory)
github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/b1e34d325397a33d97d845e312d7cf2a8b646b44 (Patch, Third Party Advisory)
lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/10/msg00000.html (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/11/msg00001.html (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2022-2153?: CVE-2022-2153 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2022-08-31.
How severe is CVE-2022-2153?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2022-2153 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.