Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2022-49913
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 · uneditedIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: fix inode list leak during backref walking at find_parent_nodes() During backref walking, at find_parent_nodes(), if we are dealing with a data extent and we get an error while resolving the indirect backrefs, at resolve_indirect_refs(), or in the while loop that iterates over the refs in the direct refs rbtree, we end up leaking the inode lists attached to the direct refs we have in the direct refs rbtree that were not yet added to the refs ulist passed as argument to find_parent_nodes(). Since they were not yet added to the refs ulist and prelim_release() does not free the lists, on error the caller can only free the lists attached to the refs that were added to the refs ulist, all the remaining refs get their inode lists never freed, therefore leaking their memory. Fix this by having prelim_release() always free any attached inode list to each ref found in the rbtree, and have find_parent_nodes() set the ref's inode list to NULL once it transfers ownership of the inode list to a ref added to the refs ulist passed to find_parent_nodes().
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 analysisAllocated 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
>= 4.14, < 5.4.224>= 5.5, < 5.10.154>= 5.11, < 5.15.78>= 5.16, < 6.0.8= 6.1CVSS 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 · scoped5.4.2245.10.1545.15.78
Upgrade to kernel 5.4.224+, 5.10.154+, 5.15.78+, or 6.0.8+ depending on your current branch
- 1. Identify the currently running Linux kernel version using 'uname -r' or 'cat /proc/version'
- 2. Determine which kernel branch your current version belongs to (4.14+, 5.5+, 5.11+, or 5.16+)
- 3. For systems on kernel 5.4.x: upgrade to kernel version 5.4.224 or later
- 4. For systems on kernel 5.10.x: upgrade to kernel version 5.10.154 or later
- 5. For systems on kernel 5.15.x: upgrade to kernel version 5.15.78 or later
- 6. For systems on kernel 5.16+ to 6.0.x: upgrade to kernel version 6.0.8 or later
- 7. After kernel upgrade, reboot the system to load the fixed kernel
- 8. Verify the fix is applied by checking the kernel version matches or exceeds the fixed releases listed above
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-49913 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-49913 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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