Linux Kernel up to 5.15.77/6.0.7 ring_buffer_wake_waiters null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.77/6.0.7 and classified as critical. The impacted element is the function ring_buffer_wake_waiters. Executing a manipulation can lead to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is registered as CVE-2022-49889. No exploit is available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.77/6.0.7 and classified as critical. This vulnerability affects the function ring_buffer_wake_waiters. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is 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. As an impact it is known to affect availability. CVE summarizes:

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

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2022-49889 since 05/01/2025. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 249204 (EulerOS 2.0 SP11 : kernel (EulerOS-SA-2025-1931)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.15.78 or 6.0.8 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch b5074df412bf3df9d6ce096b6fa03eb1082d05c9/49ca992f6e50d0f46ec9608f44e011cf3121f389/7433632c9ff68a991bd0bc38cabf354e9d2de410 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 (249204). Once again VulDB remains the best source for 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
• 5.15.35
• 5.15.36
• 5.15.37
• 5.15.38
• 5.15.39
• 5.15.40
• 5.15.41
• 5.15.42
• 5.15.43
• 5.15.44
• 5.15.45
• 5.15.46
• 5.15.47
• 5.15.48
• 5.15.49
• 5.15.50
• 5.15.51
• 5.15.52
• 5.15.53
• 5.15.54
• 5.15.55
• 5.15.56
• 5.15.57
• 5.15.58
• 5.15.59
• 5.15.60
• 5.15.61
• 5.15.62
• 5.15.63
• 5.15.64
• 5.15.65
• 5.15.66
• 5.15.67
• 5.15.68
• 5.15.69
• 5.15.70
• 5.15.71
• 5.15.72
• 5.15.73
• 5.15.74
• 5.15.75
• 5.15.76
• 5.15.77
• 6.0.0
• 6.0.1
• 6.0.2
• 6.0.3
• 6.0.4
• 6.0.5
• 6.0.6
• 6.0.7

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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Entryinfo

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