NULL pointer dereference in Linux
CVE-2022-49214
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc/64s: Don't use DSISR for SLB faults Since commit 46ddcb3950a2 ("powerpc/mm: Show if a bad page fault on data is read or write.") we use page_fault_is_write(regs->dsisr) in __bad_page_fault() to determine if the fault is for a read or write, and change the message printed accordingly. But SLB faults, aka Data Segment Interrupts, don't set DSISR (Data Storage Interrupt Status Register) to a useful value. All ISA versions from v2.03 through v3.1 specify that the Data Segment Interrupt sets DSISR "to an undefined value". As far as I can see there's no mention of SLB faults setting DSISR in any BookIV content either. This manifests as accesses that should be a read being incorrectly reported as writes, for example, using the xmon "dump" command: 0:mon> d 0x5deadbeef0000000 5deadbeef0000000 [359526.415354][ C6] BUG: Unable to handle kernel data access on write at 0x5deadbeef0000000 [359526.415611][ C6] Faulting instruction address: 0xc00000000010a300 cpu 0x6: Vector: 380 (Data SLB Access) at [c00000000ffbf400] pc: c00000000010a300: mread+0x90/0x190 If we disassemble the PC, we see a load instruction: 0:mon> di c00000000010a300 c00000000010a300 89490000 lbz r10,0(r9) We can also see in exceptions-64s.S that the data_access_slb block doesn't set IDSISR=1, which means it doesn't load DSISR into pt_regs. So the value we're using to determine if the fault is a read/write is some stale value in pt_regs from a previous page fault. Rework the printing logic to separate the SLB fault case out, and only print read/write in the cases where we can determine it. The result looks like eg: 0:mon> d 0x5deadbeef0000000 5deadbeef0000000 [ 721.779525][ C6] BUG: Unable to handle kernel data access at 0x5deadbeef0000000 [ 721.779697][ C6] Faulting instruction address: 0xc00000000014cbe0 cpu 0x6: Vector: 380 (Data SLB Access) at [c00000000ffbf390] 0:mon> d 0 0000000000000000 [ 742.793242][ C6] BUG: Kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0x00000000 [ 742.793316][ C6] Faulting instruction address: 0xc00000000014cbe0 cpu 0x6: Vector: 380 (Data SLB Access) at [c00000000ffbf390]
EPSS: 0.003 (18.1th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
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.
Affected products
- Linux — versions 46ddcb3950a28c0df4815e8dbb8d4b91d5d9f22d, 5.5, 0
- Linux Linux_kernel
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2022-49214?
- CVE-2022-49214 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2025-02-26.
- How severe is CVE-2022-49214?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.