CVE-2022-49164

Medium

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc/tm: Fix more userspace r13 corruption Commit cf13435b730a ("powerpc/tm: Fix userspace r13 corruption") fixes a problem in treclaim where a SLB miss can occur on the thread_struct->ckpt_regs while SCRATCH0 is live with the saved user r13 value, clobbering it with the kernel r13 and ultimately resulting in kernel r13 being stored in ckpt_regs. There is an equivalent problem in trechkpt where the user r13 value is loaded into r13 from chkpt_regs to be recheckpointed, but a SLB miss could occur on ckpt_regs accesses after that, which will result in r13 being clobbered with a kernel value and that will get recheckpointed and then restored to user registers. The same memory page is accessed right before this critical window where a SLB miss could cause corruption, so hitting the bug requires the SLB entry be removed within a small window of instructions, which is possible if a SLB related MCE hits there. PAPR also permits the hypervisor to discard this SLB entry (because slb_shadow->persistent is only set to SLB_NUM_BOLTED) although it's not known whether any implementations would do this (KVM does not). So this is an extremely unlikely bug, only found by inspection. Fix this by also storing user r13 in a temporary location on the kernel stack and don't change the r13 register from kernel r13 until the RI=0 critical section that does not fault. The SCRATCH0 change is not strictly part of the fix, it's only used in the RI=0 section so it does not have the same problem as the previous SCRATCH0 bug.

Package Linux Kernel
Published 2025-02-26
Last modified 2025-09-23
CVSS version 3.1
Patch available
Yes

CVSS 3.1 score

5.5

out of 10
Medium
Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 3.9 and later are affected. Fixed in 5.15.54, 5.17.2, 5.18 and their respective stable series.

Affected from
≥ 3.9
Fixed in
✓ 5.15.54 5.15.x ✓ 5.17.2 5.17.x ✓ 5.18

References

The following references provide additional information about CVE-2022-49164 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.

Frequently asked questions

  • What is CVE-2022-49164?

    CVE-2022-49164 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10 . It affects Linux kernel versions from 3.9 onward and has been patched in 5.15.54, 5.17.2 and 5.18. CVE-2022-49164 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

  • What is the CVSS score for CVE-2022-49164?

    CVE-2022-49164 has a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, rated Medium severity (CVSS 3.1). The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H .

  • Is there a patch available for CVE-2022-49164?

    Yes — CVE-2022-49164 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.15.54, 5.17.2 and 5.18. If you are running Linux kernel 3.9 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

  • Is CVE-2022-49164 actively exploited?

    No — CVE-2022-49164 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.