Linux Kernel up to 5.15.34/5.17.3 memfd_secret memory corruption

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.34/5.17.3 and classified as critical. This affects the function memfd_secret. Performing a manipulation results in memory corruption. This vulnerability is identified as CVE-2022-49049. There is not any exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.34/5.17.3. It has been classified as critical. This affects the function memfd_secret. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory corruption vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-119. The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it can read from or write to a memory location that is outside of the intended boundary of the buffer. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/secretmem: fix panic when growing a memfd_secret When one tries to grow an existing memfd_secret with ftruncate, one gets a panic [1]. For example, doing the following reliably induces the panic: fd = memfd_secret(); ftruncate(fd, 10); ptr = mmap(NULL, 10, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0); strcpy(ptr, "123456789"); munmap(ptr, 10); ftruncate(fd, 20); The basic reason for this is, when we grow with ftruncate, we call down into simple_setattr, and then truncate_inode_pages_range, and eventually we try to zero part of the memory. The normal truncation code does this via the direct map (i.e., it calls page_address() and hands that to memset()). For memfd_secret though, we specifically don't map our pages via the direct map (i.e. we call set_direct_map_invalid_noflush() on every fault). So the address returned by page_address() isn't useful, and when we try to memset() with it we panic. This patch avoids the panic by implementing a custom setattr for memfd_secret, which detects resizes specifically (setting the size for the first time works just fine, since there are no existing pages to try to zero), and rejects them with EINVAL. One could argue growing should be supported, but I think that will require a significantly more lengthy change. So, I propose a minimal fix for the benefit of stable kernels, and then perhaps to extend memfd_secret to support growing in a separate patch. [1]: BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffa0a889277028 #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page PGD afa01067 P4D afa01067 PUD 83f909067 PMD 83f8bf067 PTE 800ffffef6d88060 Oops: 0002 [#1] PREEMPT SMP DEBUG_PAGEALLOC PTI CPU: 0 PID: 281 Comm: repro Not tainted 5.17.0-dbg-DEV #1 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.15.0-1 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:memset_erms+0x9/0x10 Code: c1 e9 03 40 0f b6 f6 48 b8 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 48 0f af c6 f3 48 ab 89 d1 f3 aa 4c 89 c8 c3 90 49 89 f9 40 88 f0 48 89 d1 aa 4c 89 c8 c3 90 49 89 fa 40 0f b6 ce 48 b8 01 01 01 01 01 01 RSP: 0018:ffffb932c09afbf0 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffffda63c4249dc0 RCX: 0000000000000fd8 RDX: 0000000000000fd8 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffffa0a889277028 RBP: ffffb932c09afc00 R08: 0000000000001000 R09: ffffa0a889277028 R10: 0000000000020023 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffffda63c4249dc0 R13: ffffa0a890d70d98 R14: 0000000000000028 R15: 0000000000000fd8 FS: 00007f7294899580(0000) GS:ffffa0af9bc00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: ffffa0a889277028 CR3: 0000000107ef6006 CR4: 0000000000370ef0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: ? zero_user_segments+0x82/0x190 truncate_inode_partial_folio+0xd4/0x2a0 truncate_inode_pages_range+0x380/0x830 truncate_setsize+0x63/0x80 simple_setattr+0x37/0x60 notify_change+0x3d8/0x4d0 do_sys_ftruncate+0x162/0x1d0 __x64_sys_ftruncate+0x1c/0x20 do_syscall_64+0x44/0xa0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae Modules linked in: xhci_pci xhci_hcd virtio_net net_failover failover virtio_blk virtio_balloon uhci_hcd ohci_pci ohci_hcd evdev ehci_pci ehci_hcd 9pnet_virtio 9p netfs 9pnet CR2: ffffa0a889277028 [[email protected]: secretmem_iops can be static] Signed-off-by: kernel test robot [[email protected]: return EINVAL]

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2022-49049 since 02/26/2025. The exploitability is told to be easy. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 10/15/2025).

Upgrading to version 5.15.35 or 5.17.4 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch b6d17c67885a5624e96eb30c4178c65eea8374bf/9d3b877daf805fed29be8f61aa3d0ea37df82c7b/f9b141f93659e09a52e28791ccbaf69c273b8e92 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.

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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
• 5.15.34
• 5.17.0
• 5.17.1
• 5.17.2
• 5.17.3

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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Entryinfo

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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