Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2022-49418

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-02-26
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.18.3 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: NFSv4: Fix free of uninitialized nfs4_label on referral lookup. Send along the already-allocated fattr along with nfs4_fs_locations, and drop the memcpy of fattr. We end up growing two more allocations, but this fixes up a crash as: PID: 790 TASK: ffff88811b43c000 CPU: 0 COMMAND: "ls" #0 [ffffc90000857920] panic at ffffffff81b9bfde #1 [ffffc900008579c0] do_trap at ffffffff81023a9b #2 [ffffc90000857a10] do_error_trap at ffffffff81023b78 #3 [ffffc90000857a58] exc_stack_segment at ffffffff81be1f45 #4 [ffffc90000857a80] asm_exc_stack_segment at ffffffff81c009de #5 [ffffc90000857b08] nfs_lookup at ffffffffa0302322 [nfs] #6 [ffffc90000857b70] __lookup_slow at ffffffff813a4a5f #7 [ffffc90000857c60] walk_component at ffffffff813a86c4 #8 [ffffc90000857cb8] path_lookupat at ffffffff813a9553 #9 [ffffc90000857cf0] filename_lookup at ffffffff813ab86b

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-908

Memory or a resource is used before it has been initialised, so its contents are whatever happened to be there — sometimes leaking earlier data, sometimes values an attacker can influence. Behaviour becomes unpredictable and occasionally exploitable. Remediation is initialising every resource before use and ensuring initialisation happens on all code paths.

General guidance for the use of uninitialized resource 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:>= 5.16, < 5.18.3

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 5.18.3 or later
Fixed in 5.18.3
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

5.18.3 or later stable kernel release

  1. Upgrade Linux kernel to version 5.18.3 or later stable release
  2. Ensure all NFSv4 client modules are properly loaded after the kernel upgrade
  3. Reboot the system to load the new kernel
  4. Verify the kernel version with 'uname -r' to confirm the fix is applied
  5. Test NFSv4 mount operations, particularly referral lookups, to confirm the crash no longer occurs
Caveat Kernel upgrades require system reboot and may have compatibility implications with proprietary drivers or specific kernel modules; ensure backup and test in staging environment first

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 $1,600. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-49418 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-49418 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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.

What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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