CVE-2022-49353: linux kernel Null Dereference — Fix

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc/papr_scm: don't requests stats with '0' sized stats buffer Sachin reported [1] that on a POWER-10 lpar he is seeing a kernel panic being reported with vPMEM when papr_scm probe is being called. The panic is of the form below and is observed only with following option disabled(profile) for the said LPAR 'Enable Performance Information Collection' in the HMC: Kernel attempted to write user page (1c) - exploit attempt? (uid: 0) BUG: Kernel NULL pointer dereference on write at 0x0000001c Faulting instruction address: 0xc008000001b90844 Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1] <snip> NIP [c008000001b90844] drc_pmem_query_stats+0x5c/0x270 [papr_scm] LR [c008000001b92794] papr_scm_probe+0x2ac/0x6ec [papr_scm] Call Trace: 0xc00000000941bca0 (unreliable) papr_scm_probe+0x2ac/0x6ec [papr_scm] platform_probe+0x98/0x150 really_probe+0xfc/0x510 __driver_probe_device+0x17c/0x230 <snip> ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception On investigation looks like this panic was caused due to a 'stat_buffer' of size==0 being provided to drc_pmem_query_stats() to fetch all performance stats-ids of an NVDIMM. However drc_pmem_query_stats() shouldn't have been called since the vPMEM NVDIMM doesn't support and performance stat-id's. This was caused due to missing check for 'p->stat_buffer_len' at the beginning of papr_scm_pmu_check_events() which indicates that the NVDIMM doesn't support performance-stats. Fix this by introducing the check for 'p->stat_buffer_len' at the beginning of papr_scm_pmu_check_events(). [1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]

Is your site exposed to CVE-2022-49353?

Run a free security scan — no signup, results in seconds.

CVSS v3.1 Score

5.5

MEDIUM

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

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-476 CWE-476

Affected Products

Vendor	Product	Versions
linux	linux_kernel	All

References

Advisories & Patches

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/07bf9431b1590d1cd7a8d62075d0b50b073f0495 https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e1295aab2ebcda1c1a9ed342baedc080e5c393e5

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2022-49353? +

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc/papr_scm: don't requests stats with '0' sized stats buffer Sachin reported [1] that on a POWER-10 lpar he is seeing a kernel panic being reported with vPMEM when papr_scm probe is being called. The panic is of the form below and is observed only with following option disabled(profile) for the said LPAR 'Enable Performance Information Collection' in the HMC: Kernel attempted to write user page (1c) - exploit attempt? (uid: 0) BUG: Kernel NULL pointer dereference on write at 0x0000001c Faulting instruction address: 0xc008000001b90844 Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1] <snip> NIP [c008000001b90844] drc_pmem_query_stats+0x5c/0x270 [papr_scm] LR [c008000001b92794] papr_scm_probe+0x2ac/0x6ec [papr_scm] Call Trace: 0xc00000000941bca0 (unreliable) papr_scm_probe+0x2ac/0x6ec [papr_scm] platform_probe+0x98/0x150 really_probe+0xfc/0x510 __driver_probe_device+0x17c/0x230 <snip> ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception On investigation looks like this panic was caused due to a 'stat_buffer' of size==0 being provided to drc_pmem_query_stats() to fetch all performance stats-ids of an NVDIMM. However drc_pmem_query_stats() shouldn't have been called since the vPMEM NVDIMM doesn't support and performance stat-id's. This was caused due to missing check for 'p->stat_buffer_len' at the beginning of papr_scm_pmu_check_events() which indicates that the NVDIMM doesn't support performance-stats. Fix this by introducing the check for 'p->stat_buffer_len' at the beginning of papr_scm_pmu_check_events(). [1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected] It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.5 (MEDIUM).

How severe is CVE-2022-49353? +

CVE-2022-49353 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.5 out of 10, rated MEDIUM. This is a medium-severity vulnerability that should be remediated as part of regular maintenance.

What products are affected by CVE-2022-49353? +

CVE-2022-49353 affects products from linux, specifically: linux_kernel. Check the affected products table above for specific version ranges.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2022-49353? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

Related Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-8479

IEC 60870-5-104 used in bidirectional mode in RTU500 is vulnerable for a NULL pointer dereferencing, if a specially crafted sequence …

CVE-2025-24031

PAM-PKCS#11 is a Linux-PAM login module that allows a X.509 certificate based user login. In versions 0.6.12 and prior, the …

CVE-2025-31115

XZ Utils provide a general-purpose data-compression library plus command-line tools. In XZ Utils 5.3.3alpha to 5.8.0, the multithreaded .xz decoder …

CVE-2025-0121

A null pointer dereference vulnerability in the Palo Alto Networks Cortex® XDR agent on Windows devices allows a low-privileged local …

CVE-2023-45925

GNU Midnight Commander 4.8.29-146-g299d9a2fb was discovered to contain a NULL pointer dereference via the function x_error_handler() at tty/x11conn.c. NOTE: this …

CVE-2025-6398

A null pointer dereference vulnerability exists in the IOMap64.sys driver of ASUS AI Suite 3. The vulnerability can be triggered …

CVE-2022-49353