Linux Kernel up to 5.17.2 mm/usercopy.c virt_addr_valid heap-based overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.4.189/5.10.110/5.15.33/5.16.19/5.17.2. The affected element is the function virt_addr_valid of the file mm/usercopy.c. The manipulation leads to heap-based overflow. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2022-49067. No exploit exists. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.4.189/5.10.110/5.15.33/5.16.19/5.17.2 and classified as critical. This issue affects the function virt_addr_valid of the file mm/usercopy.c. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a heap-based overflow vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-122. A heap overflow condition is a buffer overflow, where the buffer that can be overwritten is allocated in the heap portion of memory, generally meaning that the buffer was allocated using a routine such as malloc(). Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc: Fix virt_addr_valid() for 64-bit Book3E & 32-bit mpe: On 64-bit Book3E vmalloc space starts at 0x8000000000000000. Because of the way __pa() works we have: __pa(0x8000000000000000) == 0, and therefore virt_to_pfn(0x8000000000000000) == 0, and therefore virt_addr_valid(0x8000000000000000) == true Which is wrong, virt_addr_valid() should be false for vmalloc space. In fact all vmalloc addresses that alias with a valid PFN will return true from virt_addr_valid(). That can cause bugs with hardened usercopy as described below by Kefeng Wang: When running ethtool eth0 on 64-bit Book3E, a BUG occurred: usercopy: Kernel memory exposure attempt detected from SLUB object not in SLUB page?! (offset 0, size 1048)! kernel BUG at mm/usercopy.c:99 ... usercopy_abort+0x64/0xa0 (unreliable) __check_heap_object+0x168/0x190 __check_object_size+0x1a0/0x200 dev_ethtool+0x2494/0x2b20 dev_ioctl+0x5d0/0x770 sock_do_ioctl+0xf0/0x1d0 sock_ioctl+0x3ec/0x5a0 __se_sys_ioctl+0xf0/0x160 system_call_exception+0xfc/0x1f0 system_call_common+0xf8/0x200 The code shows below, data = vzalloc(array_size(gstrings.len, ETH_GSTRING_LEN)); copy_to_user(useraddr, data, gstrings.len * ETH_GSTRING_LEN)) The data is alloced by vmalloc(), virt_addr_valid(ptr) will return true on 64-bit Book3E, which leads to the panic. As commit 4dd7554a6456 ("powerpc/64: Add VIRTUAL_BUG_ON checks for __va and __pa addresses") does, make sure the virt addr above PAGE_OFFSET in the virt_addr_valid() for 64-bit, also add upper limit check to make sure the virt is below high_memory. Meanwhile, for 32-bit PAGE_OFFSET is the virtual address of the start of lowmem, high_memory is the upper low virtual address, the check is suitable for 32-bit, this will fix the issue mentioned in commit 602946ec2f90 ("powerpc: Set max_mapnr correctly") too. On 32-bit there is a similar problem with high memory, that was fixed in commit 602946ec2f90 ("powerpc: Set max_mapnr correctly"), but that commit breaks highmem and needs to be reverted. We can't easily fix __pa(), we have code that relies on its current behaviour. So for now add extra checks to virt_addr_valid(). For 64-bit Book3S the extra checks are not necessary, the combination of virt_to_pfn() and pfn_valid() should yield the correct result, but they are harmless. [mpe: Add additional change log detail]

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2022-49067 since 02/26/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 10/15/2025).

Upgrading to version 5.4.190, 5.10.111, 5.15.34, 5.16.20 or 5.17.3 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch deab81144d5a043f42804207fb76cfbd8a806978/d36febbcd537fcc50284e8b89609632d0146529f/fddb88bd266f4513abab7c36bca98935c9148a98/a3727c25eacd7e437c4f560957fa3a376fe93e6b/cbc065efcba000ad8f615f506ebe61b6d3c5145b/ffa0b64e3be58519ae472ea29a1a1ad681e32f48 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

• 5.4.189
• 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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