CVE & CISA-KEV Catalog

CVE-2022-49201

MEDIUM
4.7
CVSS v3
NVD

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ibmvnic: fix race between xmit and reset There is a race between reset and the transmit paths that can lead to ibmvnic_xmit() accessing an scrq after it has been freed in the reset path. It can result in a crash like: Kernel attempted to read user page (0) - exploit attempt? (uid: 0) BUG: Kernel NULL pointer dereference on read at 0x00000000 Faulting instruction address: 0xc0080000016189f8 Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1] ... NIP [c0080000016189f8] ibmvnic_xmit+0x60/0xb60 [ibmvnic] LR [c000000000c0046c] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x11c/0x280 Call Trace: [c008000001618f08] ibmvnic_xmit+0x570/0xb60 [ibmvnic] (unreliable) [c000000000c0046c] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x11c/0x280 [c000000000c9cfcc] sch_direct_xmit+0xec/0x330 [c000000000bfe640] __dev_xmit_skb+0x3a0/0x9d0 [c000000000c00ad4] __dev_queue_xmit+0x394/0x730 [c008000002db813c] __bond_start_xmit+0x254/0x450 [bonding] [c008000002db8378] bond_start_xmit+0x40/0xc0 [bonding] [c000000000c0046c] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x11c/0x280 [c000000000c00ca4] __dev_queue_xmit+0x564/0x730 [c000000000cf97e0] neigh_hh_output+0xd0/0x180 [c000000000cfa69c] ip_finish_output2+0x31c/0x5c0 [c000000000cfd244] __ip_queue_xmit+0x194/0x4f0 [c000000000d2a3c4] __tcp_transmit_skb+0x434/0x9b0 [c000000000d2d1e0] __tcp_retransmit_skb+0x1d0/0x6a0 [c000000000d2d984] tcp_retransmit_skb+0x34/0x130 [c000000000d310e8] tcp_retransmit_timer+0x388/0x6d0 [c000000000d315ec] tcp_write_timer_handler+0x1bc/0x330 [c000000000d317bc] tcp_write_timer+0x5c/0x200 [c000000000243270] call_timer_fn+0x50/0x1c0 [c000000000243704] __run_timers.part.0+0x324/0x460 [c000000000243894] run_timer_softirq+0x54/0xa0 [c000000000ea713c] __do_softirq+0x15c/0x3e0 [c000000000166258] __irq_exit_rcu+0x158/0x190 [c000000000166420] irq_exit+0x20/0x40 [c00000000002853c] timer_interrupt+0x14c/0x2b0 [c000000000009a00] decrementer_common_virt+0x210/0x220 --- interrupt: 900 at plpar_hcall_norets_notrace+0x18/0x2c The immediate cause of the crash is the access of tx_scrq in the following snippet during a reset, where the tx_scrq can be either NULL or an address that will soon be invalid: ibmvnic_xmit() { ... tx_scrq = adapter->tx_scrq[queue_num]; txq = netdev_get_tx_queue(netdev, queue_num); ind_bufp = &tx_scrq->ind_buf; if (test_bit(0, &adapter->resetting)) { ... } But beyond that, the call to ibmvnic_xmit() itself is not safe during a reset and the reset path attempts to avoid this by stopping the queue in ibmvnic_cleanup(). However just after the queue was stopped, an in-flight ibmvnic_complete_tx() could have restarted the queue even as the reset is progressing. Since the queue was restarted we could get a call to ibmvnic_xmit() which can then access the bad tx_scrq (or other fields). We cannot however simply have ibmvnic_complete_tx() check the ->resetting bit and skip starting the queue. This can race at the "back-end" of a good reset which just restarted the queue but has not cleared the ->resetting bit yet. If we skip restarting the queue due to ->resetting being true, the queue would remain stopped indefinitely potentially leading to transmit timeouts. IOW ->resetting is too broad for this purpose. Instead use a new flag that indicates whether or not the queues are active. Only the open/ reset paths control when the queues are active. ibmvnic_complete_tx() and others wake up the queue only if the queue is marked active. So we will have: A. reset/open thread in ibmvnic_cleanup() and __ibmvnic_open() ->resetting = true ->tx_queues_active = false disable tx queues ... ->tx_queues_active = true start tx queues B. Tx interrupt in ibmvnic_complete_tx(): if (->tx_queues_active) netif_wake_subqueue(); To ensure that ->tx_queues_active and state of the queues are consistent, we need a lock which: - must also be taken in the interrupt path (ibmvnic_complete_tx()) - shared across the multiple ---truncated---

How to fix

Remediation Available
linuxDebian
Fixed in:5.17.3-1CVE-2022-49201
Fixed in:5.17.3-1CVE-2022-49201
Fixed in:5.17.3-1CVE-2022-49201

Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.

CVSS v3 Vector

Exploitability

Attack VectorLocal
Attack ComplexityHigh
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged

Impact

ConfidentialityNone
IntegrityNone
AvailabilityHigh

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Exploit Intelligence

0.17%probability of exploitation in 30 days
7thpercentile

Low risk: more likely to be exploited than 7% of all known CVEs.

References

Related Vulnerabilities

Other CWE-362 (Race Condition) vulnerabilities, ordered by exploit likelihood. View all

CVESeverityCVSSEPSSExploitedFix
CVE-2024-6387High8.1100%-Fix
CVE-2023-36884High7.599%KEV + RansomFix
CVE-2018-15473Medium5.399%-Fix
CVE-2024-27983High8.287%-Fix
CVE-2014-0226Medium6.886%-Fix
CVE-2016-5195High7.084%KEVFix
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This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2025-10-01.