Linux Kernel up to 5.15.33/5.16.19/5.17.2 null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.33/5.16.19/5.17.2. This impacts an unknown function. The manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2022-49070. No exploit exists. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.33/5.16.19/5.17.2. This issue affects some unknown processing. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. Impacted is availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fbdev: Fix unregistering of framebuffers without device OF framebuffers do not have an underlying device in the Linux device hierarchy. Do a regular unregister call instead of hot unplugging such a non-existing device. Fixes a NULL dereference. An example error message on ppc64le is shown below. BUG: Kernel NULL pointer dereference on read at 0x00000060 Faulting instruction address: 0xc00000000080dfa4 Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1] LE PAGE_SIZE=64K MMU=Hash SMP NR_CPUS=2048 NUMA pSeries [...] CPU: 2 PID: 139 Comm: systemd-udevd Not tainted 5.17.0-ae085d7f9365 #1 NIP: c00000000080dfa4 LR: c00000000080df9c CTR: c000000000797430 REGS: c000000004132fe0 TRAP: 0300 Not tainted (5.17.0-ae085d7f9365) MSR: 8000000002009033 CR: 28228282 XER: 20000000 CFAR: c00000000000c80c DAR: 0000000000000060 DSISR: 40000000 IRQMASK: 0 GPR00: c00000000080df9c c000000004133280 c00000000169d200 0000000000000029 GPR04: 00000000ffffefff c000000004132f90 c000000004132f88 0000000000000000 GPR08: c0000000015658f8 c0000000015cd200 c0000000014f57d0 0000000048228283 GPR12: 0000000000000000 c00000003fffe300 0000000020000000 0000000000000000 GPR16: 0000000000000000 0000000113fc4a40 0000000000000005 0000000113fcfb80 GPR20: 000001000f7283b0 0000000000000000 c000000000e4a588 c000000000e4a5b0 GPR24: 0000000000000001 00000000000a0000 c008000000db0168 c0000000021f6ec0 GPR28: c0000000016d65a8 c000000004b36460 0000000000000000 c0000000016d64b0 NIP [c00000000080dfa4] do_remove_conflicting_framebuffers+0x184/0x1d0 [c000000004133280] [c00000000080df9c] do_remove_conflicting_framebuffers+0x17c/0x1d0 (unreliable) [c000000004133350] [c00000000080e4d0] remove_conflicting_framebuffers+0x60/0x150 [c0000000041333a0] [c00000000080e6f4] remove_conflicting_pci_framebuffers+0x134/0x1b0 [c000000004133450] [c008000000e70438] drm_aperture_remove_conflicting_pci_framebuffers+0x90/0x100 [drm] [c000000004133490] [c008000000da0ce4] bochs_pci_probe+0x6c/0xa64 [bochs] [...] [c000000004133db0] [c00000000002aaa0] system_call_exception+0x170/0x2d0 [c000000004133e10] [c00000000000c3cc] system_call_common+0xec/0x250 The bug [1] was introduced by commit 27599aacbaef ("fbdev: Hot-unplug firmware fb devices on forced removal"). Most firmware framebuffers have an underlying platform device, which can be hot-unplugged before loading the native graphics driver. OF framebuffers do not (yet) have that device. Fix the code by unregistering the framebuffer as before without a hot unplug. Tested with 5.17 on qemu ppc64le emulation.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2022-49070 since 02/26/2025. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available.

Upgrading to version 5.15.34, 5.16.20 or 5.17.3 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 2388f826cdc9af2651991adc0feb79de9bdf2232/de33df481545974ba47c46f05194e769e4307843/feed87ff122b1640c221d4dd559442ab2cd50bb1/0f525289ff0ddeb380813bd81e0f9bdaaa1c9078 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.15.0
• 5.15.1
• 5.15.2
• 5.15.3
• 5.15.4
• 5.15.5
• 5.15.6
• 5.15.7
• 5.15.8
• 5.15.9
• 5.15.10
• 5.15.11
• 5.15.12
• 5.15.13
• 5.15.14
• 5.15.15
• 5.15.16
• 5.15.17
• 5.15.18
• 5.15.19
• 5.15.20
• 5.15.21
• 5.15.22
• 5.15.23
• 5.15.24
• 5.15.25
• 5.15.26
• 5.15.27
• 5.15.28
• 5.15.29
• 5.15.30
• 5.15.31
• 5.15.32
• 5.15.33
• 5.16.0
• 5.16.1
• 5.16.2
• 5.16.3
• 5.16.4
• 5.16.5
• 5.16.6
• 5.16.7
• 5.16.8
• 5.16.9
• 5.16.10
• 5.16.11
• 5.16.12
• 5.16.13
• 5.16.14
• 5.16.15
• 5.16.16
• 5.16.17
• 5.16.18
• 5.16.19
• 5.17.0
• 5.17.1
• 5.17.2

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Exploitinginfo

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Entryinfo

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