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Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2022-49908

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-05-01
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.15.78 / 6.0.8 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: Bluetooth: L2CAP: Fix memory leak in vhci_write Syzkaller reports a memory leak as follows: ==================================== BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xffff88810d81ac00 (size 240): [...] hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: [<ffffffff838733d9>] __alloc_skb+0x1f9/0x270 net/core/skbuff.c:418 [<ffffffff833f742f>] alloc_skb include/linux/skbuff.h:1257 [inline] [<ffffffff833f742f>] bt_skb_alloc include/net/bluetooth/bluetooth.h:469 [inline] [<ffffffff833f742f>] vhci_get_user drivers/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:391 [inline] [<ffffffff833f742f>] vhci_write+0x5f/0x230 drivers/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:511 [<ffffffff815e398d>] call_write_iter include/linux/fs.h:2192 [inline] [<ffffffff815e398d>] new_sync_write fs/read_write.c:491 [inline] [<ffffffff815e398d>] vfs_write+0x42d/0x540 fs/read_write.c:578 [<ffffffff815e3cdd>] ksys_write+0x9d/0x160 fs/read_write.c:631 [<ffffffff845e0645>] do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] [<ffffffff845e0645>] do_syscall_64+0x35/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 [<ffffffff84600087>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd ==================================== HCI core will uses hci_rx_work() to process frame, which is queued to the hdev->rx_q tail in hci_recv_frame() by HCI driver. Yet the problem is that, HCI core may not free the skb after handling ACL data packets. To be more specific, when start fragment does not contain the L2CAP length, HCI core just copies skb into conn->rx_skb and finishes frame process in l2cap_recv_acldata(), without freeing the skb, which triggers the above memory leak. This patch solves it by releasing the relative skb, after processing the above case in l2cap_recv_acldata().

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-401

Allocated memory is never released on some path, so a long-running service or a repeatedly triggered request steadily consumes memory until performance degrades or the process crashes. Attackers exploit it by simply driving the leaking path. Remediation is pairing every allocation with a release and using ownership patterns or tooling to catch what leaks.

General guidance for the memory leak 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:>= 5.12, < 5.15.78>= 5.16, < 6.0.8= 6.1

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 5.15.78 / 6.0.8 or later
Fixed in 5.15.786.0.8
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux Kernel 5.15.78+, 6.0.8+, or 6.1.1+ (depending on branch)

  1. Identify the kernel version in use with `uname -r` or `cat /proc/version`
  2. For distributions using kernel 5.15.x: upgrade to kernel version 5.15.78 or later
  3. For distributions using kernel 6.0.x: upgrade to kernel version 6.0.8 or later
  4. For distributions using kernel 6.1.x: upgrade to kernel version 6.1.1 or later
  5. Alternatively, apply the upstream patch commit 5b4f039a2f487c5edae681d763fe1af505f84c13 to the affected kernel source tree and rebuild
  6. After upgrading, verify the fix by checking the kernel version or checking for the commit presence in /boot/config-* or /proc/config.gz if kernel config is available
Caveat Minimal risk - this is a targeted bug fix for a memory leak in the Bluetooth L2CAP code; upgrading to the next stable point release is standard practice

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

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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-2022-49908 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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