Linux Kernel up to 6.0.8 net macvlan_changelink_sources memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as critical has been identified in Linux Kernel up to 6.0.8. This issue affects the function macvlan_changelink_sources of the component net. The manipulation results in memory leak. This vulnerability was named CVE-2022-49853. The attack may be performed from remote. There is no available exploit. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.0.8. Affected is the function macvlan_changelink_sources of the component net. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. This is going to have an impact on availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: macvlan: fix memory leaks of macvlan_common_newlink kmemleak reports memory leaks in macvlan_common_newlink, as follows: ip link add link eth0 name .. type macvlan mode source macaddr add kmemleak reports: unreferenced object 0xffff8880109bb140 (size 64): comm "ip", pid 284, jiffies 4294986150 (age 430.108s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 b8 aa 5a 12 80 88 ff ff ..........Z..... 80 1b fa 0d 80 88 ff ff 1e ff ac af c7 c1 6b 6b ..............kk backtrace: [] kmem_cache_alloc_trace+0x1c7/0x300 [] macvlan_hash_add_source+0x45/0xc0 [] macvlan_changelink_sources+0xd7/0x170 [] macvlan_common_newlink+0x38c/0x5a0 [] macvlan_newlink+0xe/0x20 [] __rtnl_newlink+0x7af/0xa50 [] rtnl_newlink+0x48/0x70 ... In the scenario where the macvlan mode is configured as 'source', macvlan_changelink_sources() will be execured to reconfigure list of remote source mac addresses, at the same time, if register_netdevice() return an error, the resource generated by macvlan_changelink_sources() is not cleaned up. Using this patch, in the case of an error, it will execute macvlan_flush_sources() to ensure that the resource is cleaned up.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2022-49853 since 05/01/2025. The exploitability is told to be difficult. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1499.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 240793 (SUSE SLES12 Security Update : kernel (SUSE-SU-2025:01983-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 4.9.334, 4.14.300, 4.19.267, 5.4.225, 5.10.155, 5.15.79 or 6.0.9 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 9f288e338be206713d79b29144c27fca4503c39b/21d3a8b6a1e39e7529ce9de07316ee13a63f305b/a81b44d1df1f07f00c0dcc0a0b3d2fa24a46289e/685e73e3f7a9fb75cbf049a9d0b7c45cc6b57b2e/956e0216a19994443c90ba2ea6b0b284c9c4f9cb/a8d67367ab33604326cc37ab44fd1801bf5691ba/9ea003c4671b2fc455320ecf6d4a43b0a3c1878a/23569b5652ee8e8e55a12f7835f59af6f3cefc30 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 (240793). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 4.9.333
• 4.14.299
• 4.19.266
• 5.4.224
• 5.10.154
• 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
• 5.15.78
• 6.0.0
• 6.0.1
• 6.0.2
• 6.0.3
• 6.0.4
• 6.0.5
• 6.0.6
• 6.0.7
• 6.0.8

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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CVSSv4info

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CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

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