Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2022-49197

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-02-26
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 4.9.311 / 4.14.276 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click Patch available

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 · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: af_netlink: Fix shift out of bounds in group mask calculation When a netlink message is received, netlink_recvmsg() fills in the address of the sender. One of the fields is the 32-bit bitfield nl_groups, which carries the multicast group on which the message was received. The least significant bit corresponds to group 1, and therefore the highest group that the field can represent is 32. Above that, the UB sanitizer flags the out-of-bounds shift attempts. Which bits end up being set in such case is implementation defined, but it's either going to be a wrong non-zero value, or zero, which is at least not misleading. Make the latter choice deterministic by always setting to 0 for higher-numbered multicast groups. To get information about membership in groups >= 32, userspace is expected to use nl_pktinfo control messages[0], which are enabled by NETLINK_PKTINFO socket option. [0] https://lwn.net/Articles/147608/ The way to trigger this issue is e.g. through monitoring the BRVLAN group: # bridge monitor vlan & # ip link add name br type bridge Which produces the following citation: UBSAN: shift-out-of-bounds in net/netlink/af_netlink.c:162:19 shift exponent 32 is too large for 32-bit type 'int'

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 analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-190

An arithmetic operation produces a value too large for its type and wraps around to an unexpected — often tiny or negative — number. That miscalculated value then drives a memory allocation or a bounds check, opening the door to corruption. The fix is checked arithmetic and validating sizes before they're used.

General guidance for the integer overflow 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
Affected:>= 2.6.14, < 4.9.311>= 4.10, < 4.14.276>= 4.15, < 4.19.238>= 4.20, < 5.4.189>= 5.5, < 5.10.110>= 5.11, < 5.15.33>= 5.16, < 5.16.19>= 5.17, < 5.17.2

CVSS 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 · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 4.9.311 / 4.14.276 / 4.19.238 or later
Fixed in 4.9.3114.14.2764.19.238
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to kernel version 4.9.311 (for 4.9.x), 4.14.276 (for 4.14.x), 4.19.238 (for 4.19.x), or 5.4.189+ (for 5.4.x and later)

  1. Identify current kernel version using `uname -r`
  2. Determine which version range the current kernel falls into (4.9.x, 4.14.x, 4.19.x, or 5.4.x)
  3. Upgrade to the appropriate fixed kernel version: 4.9.311, 4.14.276, 4.19.238, or 5.4.189 respectively
  4. For versions 5.4 and above, upgrade to 5.4.189 or later stable release
  5. Reboot the system after kernel upgrade
  6. Verify the fix is applied by checking the kernel version and testing netlink functionality
Caveat Minimal risk - this is a security bugfix that corrects undefined behavior in netlink group mask handling; no functional changes to API or behavior

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $2,850. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-49197 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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