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Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2022-49557

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-02-26
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.17.13 / 5.18.2 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: x86/fpu: KVM: Set the base guest FPU uABI size to sizeof(struct kvm_xsave) Set the starting uABI size of KVM's guest FPU to 'struct kvm_xsave', i.e. to KVM's historical uABI size. When saving FPU state for usersapce, KVM (well, now the FPU) sets the FP+SSE bits in the XSAVE header even if the host doesn't support XSAVE. Setting the XSAVE header allows the VM to be migrated to a host that does support XSAVE without the new host having to handle FPU state that may or may not be compatible with XSAVE. Setting the uABI size to the host's default size results in out-of-bounds writes (setting the FP+SSE bits) and data corruption (that is thankfully caught by KASAN) when running on hosts without XSAVE, e.g. on Core2 CPUs. WARN if the default size is larger than KVM's historical uABI size; all features that can push the FPU size beyond the historical size must be opt-in. ================================================================== BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in fpu_copy_uabi_to_guest_fpstate+0x86/0x130 Read of size 8 at addr ffff888011e33a00 by task qemu-build/681 CPU: 1 PID: 681 Comm: qemu-build Not tainted 5.18.0-rc5-KASAN-amd64 #1 Hardware name: /DG35EC, BIOS ECG3510M.86A.0118.2010.0113.1426 01/13/2010 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x34/0x45 print_report.cold+0x45/0x575 kasan_report+0x9b/0xd0 fpu_copy_uabi_to_guest_fpstate+0x86/0x130 kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl+0x72a/0x1c50 [kvm] kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x47f/0x7b0 [kvm] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x5de/0xc90 do_syscall_64+0x31/0x50 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae </TASK> Allocated by task 0: (stack is not available) The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff888011e33800 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-512 of size 512 The buggy address is located 0 bytes to the right of 512-byte region [ffff888011e33800, ffff888011e33a00) The buggy address belongs to the physical page: page:0000000089cd4adb refcount:1 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x11e30 head:0000000089cd4adb order:2 compound_mapcount:0 compound_pincount:0 flags: 0x4000000000010200(slab|head|zone=1) raw: 4000000000010200 dead000000000100 dead000000000122 ffff888001041c80 raw: 0000000000000000 0000000080100010 00000001ffffffff 0000000000000000 page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected Memory state around the buggy address: ffff888011e33900: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ffff888011e33980: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 >ffff888011e33a00: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc ^ ffff888011e33a80: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc ffff888011e33b00: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc ================================================================== Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint

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-787

The program writes past the bounds of a buffer, overwriting adjacent memory an attacker can turn to their advantage. Crafted input can overwrite control data and redirect execution. Remediation is validating every index and length before a write, plus modern memory-safety mitigations.

General guidance for the out-of-bounds write 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:>= 5.17, < 5.17.13>= 5.18, < 5.18.2

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 5.17.13 / 5.18.2 or later
Fixed in 5.17.135.18.2
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux Kernel 5.17.13+ or 5.18.2+

  1. Check current kernel version with 'uname -r'
  2. Identify which kernel branch is in use (5.17.x or 5.18.x)
  3. If using kernel 5.17.x: upgrade to version 5.17.13 or later
  4. If using kernel 5.18.x: upgrade to version 5.18.2 or later
  5. Reboot the system to apply the new kernel
Caveat Standard kernel upgrade risks apply; test in non-production 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 $2,850. Get the upgrade done

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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-2022-49557 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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