Use After Free in Linux

CVE-2022-49834

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nilfs2: fix use-after-free bug of ns_writer on remount If a nilfs2 filesystem is downgraded to read-only due to metadata corruption on disk and is remounted read/write, or if emergency read-only remount is performed, detaching a log writer and synchronizing the filesystem can be done at the same time. In these cases, use-after-free of the log writer (hereinafter nilfs->ns_writer) can happen as shown in the scenario below: Task1 Task2 -------------------------------- ------------------------------ nilfs_construct_segment nilfs_segctor_sync init_wait init_waitqueue_entry add_wait_queue schedule nilfs_remount (R/W remount case) nilfs_attach_log_writer nilfs_detach_log_writer nilfs_segctor_destroy kfree finish_wait _raw_spin_lock_irqsave __raw_spin_lock_irqsave do_raw_spin_lock debug_spin_lock_before <-- use-after-free While Task1 is sleeping, nilfs->ns_writer is freed by Task2. After Task1 waked up, Task1 accesses nilfs->ns_writer which is already freed. This scenario diagram is based on the Shigeru Yoshida's post [1]. This patch fixes the issue by not detaching nilfs->ns_writer on remount so that this UAF race doesn't happen. Along with this change, this patch also inserts a few necessary read-only checks with superblock instance where only the ns_writer pointer was used to check if the filesystem is read-only.

Vulnerability class: Use-After-Free

EPSS: 0.002 (9.8th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2022-49834?
CVE-2022-49834 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under Use After Free. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2025-05-01.
How severe is CVE-2022-49834?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.