Linux Kernel up to 5.17.2 openvswitch memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.17.2. Impacted is an unknown function of the component openvswitch. Executing a manipulation can lead to memory leak. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2022-49086. There is not any exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is advised.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.17.2 and classified as critical. This vulnerability affects an unknown function of the component openvswitch. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. As an impact it is known to affect availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: openvswitch: fix leak of nested actions While parsing user-provided actions, openvswitch module may dynamically allocate memory and store pointers in the internal copy of the actions. So this memory has to be freed while destroying the actions. Currently there are only two such actions: ct() and set(). However, there are many actions that can hold nested lists of actions and ovs_nla_free_flow_actions() just jumps over them leaking the memory. For example, removal of the flow with the following actions will lead to a leak of the memory allocated by nf_ct_tmpl_alloc(): actions:clone(ct(commit),0) Non-freed set() action may also leak the 'dst' structure for the tunnel info including device references. Under certain conditions with a high rate of flow rotation that may cause significant memory leak problem (2MB per second in reporter's case). The problem is also hard to mitigate, because the user doesn't have direct control over the datapath flows generated by OVS. Fix that by iterating over all the nested actions and freeing everything that needs to be freed recursively. New build time assertion should protect us from this problem if new actions will be added in the future. Unfortunately, openvswitch module doesn't use NLA_F_NESTED, so all attributes has to be explicitly checked. sample() and clone() actions are mixing extra attributes into the user-provided action list. That prevents some code generalization too.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2022-49086 since 02/26/2025. The exploitation appears to be difficult. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 237099 (SUSE SLES12 Security Update : kernel (SUSE-SU-2025:01600-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 4.19.249, 5.4.200, 5.10.111, 5.15.34, 5.16.20 or 5.17.3 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 7438dc55c0709819b813f4778aec2c48b782990b/ef6f9ce0a79aa23b10fc5f3b3cab3814a25aac40/5ae05b5eb58773cfec307ff88aff4cfd843c4cff/837b96d8103938e35e7d92cd9db96af914ca4fff/3554c214b83ec9a839ed574263a34218f372990c/53bce9d19b0a9d245b25cd050b81652ed974a509/1f30fb9166d4f15a1aa19449b9da871fe0ed4796 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.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (237099). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 4.19.248
• 5.4.199
• 5.10.110
• 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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Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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