Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2022-49623

HIGH · 7.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-02-26
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.15.56 / 5.18.13 or later.
See remediation →
73/100
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: powerpc/xive/spapr: correct bitmap allocation size kasan detects access beyond the end of the xibm->bitmap allocation: BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in _find_first_zero_bit+0x40/0x140 Read of size 8 at addr c00000001d1d0118 by task swapper/0/1 CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 5.19.0-rc2-00001-g90df023b36dd #28 Call Trace: [c00000001d98f770] [c0000000012baab8] dump_stack_lvl+0xac/0x108 (unreliable) [c00000001d98f7b0] [c00000000068faac] print_report+0x37c/0x710 [c00000001d98f880] [c0000000006902c0] kasan_report+0x110/0x354 [c00000001d98f950] [c000000000692324] __asan_load8+0xa4/0xe0 [c00000001d98f970] [c0000000011c6ed0] _find_first_zero_bit+0x40/0x140 [c00000001d98f9b0] [c0000000000dbfbc] xive_spapr_get_ipi+0xcc/0x260 [c00000001d98fa70] [c0000000000d6d28] xive_setup_cpu_ipi+0x1e8/0x450 [c00000001d98fb30] [c000000004032a20] pSeries_smp_probe+0x5c/0x118 [c00000001d98fb60] [c000000004018b44] smp_prepare_cpus+0x944/0x9ac [c00000001d98fc90] [c000000004009f9c] kernel_init_freeable+0x2d4/0x640 [c00000001d98fd90] [c0000000000131e8] kernel_init+0x28/0x1d0 [c00000001d98fe10] [c00000000000cd54] ret_from_kernel_thread+0x5c/0x64 Allocated by task 0: kasan_save_stack+0x34/0x70 __kasan_kmalloc+0xb4/0xf0 __kmalloc+0x268/0x540 xive_spapr_init+0x4d0/0x77c pseries_init_irq+0x40/0x27c init_IRQ+0x44/0x84 start_kernel+0x2a4/0x538 start_here_common+0x1c/0x20 The buggy address belongs to the object at c00000001d1d0118 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-8 of size 8 The buggy address is located 0 bytes inside of 8-byte region [c00000001d1d0118, c00000001d1d0120) The buggy address belongs to the physical page: page:c00c000000074740 refcount:1 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0xc00000001d1d0558 pfn:0x1d1d flags: 0x7ffff000000200(slab|node=0|zone=0|lastcpupid=0x7ffff) raw: 007ffff000000200 c00000001d0003c8 c00000001d0003c8 c00000001d010480 raw: c00000001d1d0558 0000000001e1000a 00000001ffffffff 0000000000000000 page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected Memory state around the buggy address: c00000001d1d0000: fc 00 fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc c00000001d1d0080: fc fc 00 fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc >c00000001d1d0100: fc fc fc 02 fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc ^ c00000001d1d0180: fc fc fc fc 04 fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc c00000001d1d0200: fc fc fc fc fc 04 fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc This happens because the allocation uses the wrong unit (bits) when it should pass (BITS_TO_LONGS(count) * sizeof(long)) or equivalent. With small numbers of bits, the allocated object can be smaller than sizeof(long), which results in invalid accesses. Use bitmap_zalloc() to allocate and initialize the irq bitmap, paired with bitmap_free() for consistency.

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-125

The code reads past the end (or before the start) of a buffer, returning memory that was never meant to be exposed. Attackers use it to leak secrets like keys or to defeat memory-protection defences. Remediation is validating indices and lengths before every read.

General guidance for the out-of-bounds read 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:< 5.15.56>= 5.16, < 5.18.13= 5.19

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
High
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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 5.15.56 / 5.18.13 or later
Fixed in 5.15.565.18.13
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

5.15.56 (or 5.18.13, or 6.0+)

  1. Upgrade the Linux kernel to version 5.15.56 or later for the 5.15 stable branch
  2. Alternatively, upgrade to version 5.18.13 or later for the 5.16-5.18 stable branches
  3. Alternatively, upgrade to version 6.0 or later (6.0+ includes the fix as 5.19 is end-of-life)
  4. Verify the fix by checking that xive_spapr_init() uses bitmap_zalloc() and bitmap_free() for the irq bitmap allocation
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require system reboot and could introduce compatibility changes with out-of-tree modules or specific hardware drivers

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 $3,200. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-49623 — 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-2022-49623 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data