NULL pointer dereference in Linux
CVE-2022-49152
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: XArray: Fix xas_create_range() when multi-order entry present If there is already an entry present that is of order >= XA_CHUNK_SHIFT when we call xas_create_range(), xas_create_range() will misinterpret that entry as a node and dereference xa_node->parent, generally leading to a crash that looks something like this: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000001: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000008-0x000000000000000f] CPU: 0 PID: 32 Comm: khugepaged Not tainted 5.17.0-rc8-syzkaller-00003-g56e337f2cf13 #0 RIP: 0010:xa_parent_locked include/linux/xarray.h:1207 [inline] RIP: 0010:xas_create_range+0x2d9/0x6e0 lib/xarray.c:725 It's deterministically reproducable once you know what the problem is, but producing it in a live kernel requires khugepaged to hit a race. While the problem has been present since xas_create_range() was introduced, I'm not aware of a way to hit it before the page cache was converted to use multi-index entries.
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 4.7 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.002 (8.8th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 9th percentile — 8.8% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.002 · change: +0.000
Affected products
- Linux — versions 6b24ca4a1a8d4ee3221d6d44ddbb99f542e4bda3, 5.17, 0
- Linux Kernel
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2022-49152?
- CVE-2022-49152 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 4.7/10. Published 2025-02-26.
- How severe is CVE-2022-49152?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 4.7 out of 10.