Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2022-48800
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: vmscan: remove deadlock due to throttling failing to make progress A soft lockup bug in kcompactd was reported in a private bugzilla with the following visible in dmesg; watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#33 stuck for 26s! [kcompactd0:479] watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#33 stuck for 52s! [kcompactd0:479] watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#33 stuck for 78s! [kcompactd0:479] watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#33 stuck for 104s! [kcompactd0:479] The machine had 256G of RAM with no swap and an earlier failed allocation indicated that node 0 where kcompactd was run was potentially unreclaimable; Node 0 active_anon:29355112kB inactive_anon:2913528kB active_file:0kB inactive_file:0kB unevictable:64kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB mapped:8kB dirty:0kB writeback:0kB shmem:26780kB shmem_thp: 0kB shmem_pmdmapped: 0kB anon_thp: 23480320kB writeback_tmp:0kB kernel_stack:2272kB pagetables:24500kB all_unreclaimable? yes Vlastimil Babka investigated a crash dump and found that a task migrating pages was trying to drain PCP lists; PID: 52922 TASK: ffff969f820e5000 CPU: 19 COMMAND: "kworker/u128:3" Call Trace: __schedule schedule schedule_timeout wait_for_completion __flush_work __drain_all_pages __alloc_pages_slowpath.constprop.114 __alloc_pages alloc_migration_target migrate_pages migrate_to_node do_migrate_pages cpuset_migrate_mm_workfn process_one_work worker_thread kthread ret_from_fork This failure is specific to CONFIG_PREEMPT=n builds. The root of the problem is that kcompact0 is not rescheduling on a CPU while a task that has isolated a large number of the pages from the LRU is waiting on kcompact0 to reschedule so the pages can be released. While shrink_inactive_list() only loops once around too_many_isolated, reclaim can continue without rescheduling if sc->skipped_deactivate == 1 which could happen if there was no file LRU and the inactive anon list was not low.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysisShared resources are accessed without correct locking, so concurrent operations interleave into inconsistent — and sometimes exploitable — states, or deadlock the service outright. These bugs are subtle and timing-dependent. The fix is correct, consistent locking or atomic operations around every shared resource.
General guidance for the improper locking class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
>= 5.16, < 5.16.10CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
dbcve · scoped5.16.10
Linux Kernel 5.16.10 or later
- Check current kernel version with `uname -r` or `cat /proc/version`
- If version is >= 5.16.0 and < 5.16.10, the system is vulnerable
- Upgrade the Linux kernel to version 5.16.10 or later using your distribution's package manager (e.g., `apt-get dist-upgrade`, `yum update`, or `dnf upgrade`)
- Reboot the system to load the patched kernel
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-48800 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-48800 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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