NULL pointer dereference in Linux
CVE-2022-49889
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ring-buffer: Check for NULL cpu_buffer in ring_buffer_wake_waiters() On some machines the number of listed CPUs may be bigger than the actual CPUs that exist. The tracing subsystem allocates a per_cpu directory with access to the per CPU ring buffer via a cpuX file. But to save space, the ring buffer will only allocate buffers for online CPUs, even though the CPU array will be as big as the nr_cpu_ids. With the addition of waking waiters on the ring buffer when closing the file, the ring_buffer_wake_waiters() now needs to make sure that the buffer is allocated (with the irq_work allocated with it) before trying to wake waiters, as it will cause a NULL pointer dereference. While debugging this, I added a NULL check for the buffer itself (which is OK to do), and also NULL pointer checks against buffer->buffers (which is not fine, and will WARN) as well as making sure the CPU number passed in is within the nr_cpu_ids (which is also not fine if it isn't). Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1204705
EPSS: 0.002 (7.1th 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 5544f411a4e8bc39e6a444badbac37dd0e0caf0a, 5.15.75, 2475de2bc0de17fb1b24c5e90194f84b5ca70d3e
- Linux Linux_kernel
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2022-49889?
- CVE-2022-49889 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2025-05-01.
- How severe is CVE-2022-49889?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.