CVE-2022-50471
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: xen/gntdev: Accommodate VMA splitting Prior to this commit, the gntdev driver code did not handle the following scenario correctly with paravirtualized (PV) Xen domains: * User process sets up a gntdev mapping composed of two grant mappings (i.e., two pages shared by another Xen domain). * User process munmap()s one of the pages. * User process munmap()s the remaining page. * User process exits. In the scenario above, the user process would cause the kernel to log the following messages in dmesg for the first munmap(), and the second munmap() call would result in similar log messages: BUG: Bad page map in process doublemap.test pte:... pmd:... page:0000000057c97bff refcount:1 mapcount:-1 \ mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:... ... page dumped because: bad pte ... file:gntdev fault:0x0 mmap:gntdev_mmap [xen_gntdev] readpage:0x0 ... Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x46/0x5e print_bad_pte.cold+0x66/0xb6 unmap_page_range+0x7e5/0xdc0 unmap_vmas+0x78/0xf0 unmap_region+0xa8/0x110 __do_munmap+0x1ea/0x4e0 __vm_munmap+0x75/0x120 __x64_sys_munmap+0x28/0x40 do_syscall_64+0x38/0x90 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x61/0xcb ... For each munmap() call, the Xen hypervisor (if built with CONFIG_DEBUG) would print out the following and trigger a general protection fault in the affected Xen PV domain: (XEN) d0v... Attempt to implicitly unmap d0's grant PTE ... (XEN) d0v... Attempt to implicitly unmap d0's grant PTE ... As of this writing, gntdev_grant_map structure's vma field (referred to as map->vma below) is mainly used for checking the start and end addresses of mappings. However, with split VMAs, these may change, and there could be more than one VMA associated with a gntdev mapping. Hence, remove the use of map->vma and rely on map->pages_vm_start for the original start address and on (map->count << PAGE_SHIFT) for the original mapping size. Let the invalidate() and find_special_page() hooks use these. Also, given that there can be multiple VMAs associated with a gntdev mapping, move the "mmu_interval_notifier_remove(&map->notifier)" call to the end of gntdev_put_map, so that the MMU notifier is only removed after the closing of the last remaining VMA. Finally, use an atomic to prevent inadvertent gntdev mapping re-use, instead of using the map->live_grants atomic counter and/or the map->vma pointer (the latter of which is now removed). This prevents the userspace from mmap()'ing (with MAP_FIXED) a gntdev mapping over the same address range as a previously set up gntdev mapping. This scenario can be summarized with the following call-trace, which was valid prior to this commit: mmap gntdev_mmap mmap (repeat mmap with MAP_FIXED over the same address range) gntdev_invalidate unmap_grant_pages (sets 'being_removed' entries to true) gnttab_unmap_refs_async unmap_single_vma gntdev_mmap (maps the shared pages again) munmap gntdev_invalidate unmap_grant_pages (no-op because 'being_removed' entries are true) unmap_single_vma (For PV domains, Xen reports that a granted page is being unmapped and triggers a general protection fault in the affected domain, if Xen was built with CONFIG_DEBUG) The fix for this last scenario could be worth its own commit, but we opted for a single commit, because removing the gntdev_grant_map structure's vma field requires guarding the entry to gntdev_mmap(), and the live_grants atomic counter is not sufficient on its own to prevent the mmap() over a pre-existing mapping.
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 analysisA detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.
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>= 2.6.38, < 5.10.152>= 5.11, < 5.15.75>= 5.16, < 5.19.17>= 6.0, < 6.0.3CVSS 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 · scoped5.10.1525.15.755.19.17
Linux kernel 5.10.152+ / 5.15.75+ / 5.19.17+ / 6.0.3+ (any of these versions contain the fix)
- Upgrade the Linux kernel to version 5.10.152 or later, OR
- Upgrade to version 5.15.75 or later, OR
- Upgrade to version 5.19.17 or later, OR
- Upgrade to version 6.0.3 or later
- After upgrading, reboot the system to load the fixed kernel
- For systems running as Xen PV guests, verify the xen_gntdev module loads correctly with the fix by checking dmesg for any remaining grant mapping errors
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-50471 — 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-2022-50471 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
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