CVE-2022-49401 Vulnerability Analysis & Exploit Details

CVE-2022-49401
Vulnerability Scoring

7.1
/10
Very High Risk

Highly exploitable, CVE-2022-49401 poses a critical security risk that could lead to severe breaches.

Attack Complexity Details

  • Attack Complexity: Low
    Exploits can be performed without significant complexity or special conditions.
  • Attack Vector: Local
    Vulnerability requires local system access.
  • Privileges Required: Low
    Some privileges are necessary to exploit the vulnerability.
  • Scope: Unchanged
    Exploit remains within the originally vulnerable component.
  • User Interaction: None
    No user interaction is necessary for exploitation.

CVE-2022-49401 Details

Status: Analyzed

Last updated: 🕢 22 Sep 2025, 19:57 UTC
Originally published on: 🕖 26 Feb 2025, 07:01 UTC

Time between publication and last update: 208 days

CVSS Release: version 3

CVSS3 Source

nvd@nist.gov

CVSS3 Type

Primary

CVSS3 Vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H

CVE-2022-49401 Vulnerability Summary

CVE-2022-49401: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/page_owner: use strscpy() instead of strlcpy() current->comm[] is not a string (no guarantee for a zero byte in it). strlcpy(s1, s2, l) is calling strlen(s2), potentially causing out-of-bound access, as reported by syzbot: detected buffer overflow in __fortify_strlen ------------[ cut here ]------------ kernel BUG at lib/string_helpers.c:980! invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN CPU: 0 PID: 4087 Comm: dhcpcd-run-hooks Not tainted 5.18.0-rc3-syzkaller-01537-g20b87e7c29df #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 01/01/2011 RIP: 0010:fortify_panic+0x18/0x1a lib/string_helpers.c:980 Code: 8c e8 c5 ba e1 fa e9 23 0f bf fa e8 0b 5d 8c f8 eb db 55 48 89 fd e8 e0 49 40 f8 48 89 ee 48 c7 c7 80 f5 26 8a e8 99 09 f1 ff <0f> 0b e8 ca 49 40 f8 48 8b 54 24 18 4c 89 f1 48 c7 c7 00 00 27 8a RSP: 0018:ffffc900000074a8 EFLAGS: 00010286 RAX: 000000000000002c RBX: ffff88801226b728 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: ffff8880198e0000 RSI: ffffffff81600458 RDI: fffff52000000e87 RBP: ffffffff89da2aa0 R08: 000000000000002c R09: 0000000000000000 R10: ffffffff815fae2e R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff88801226b700 R13: ffff8880198e0830 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8880b9c00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00007f5876ad6ff8 CR3: 000000001a48c000 CR4: 00000000003506f0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000600 Call Trace: <IRQ> __fortify_strlen include/linux/fortify-string.h:128 [inline] strlcpy include/linux/fortify-string.h:143 [inline] __set_page_owner_handle+0x2b1/0x3e0 mm/page_owner.c:171 __set_page_owner+0x3e/0x50 mm/page_owner.c:190 prep_new_page mm/page_alloc.c:2441 [inline] get_page_from_freelist+0xba2/0x3e00 mm/page_alloc.c:4182 __alloc_pages+0x1b2/0x500 mm/page_alloc.c:5408 alloc_pages+0x1aa/0x310 mm/mempolicy.c:2272 alloc_slab_page mm/slub.c:1799 [inline] allocate_slab+0x26c/0x3c0 mm/slub.c:1944 new_slab mm/slub.c:2004 [inline] ___slab_alloc+0x8df/0xf20 mm/slub.c:3005 __slab_alloc.constprop.0+0x4d/0xa0 mm/slub.c:3092 slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:3183 [inline] slab_alloc mm/slub.c:3225 [inline] __kmem_cache_alloc_lru mm/slub.c:3232 [inline] kmem_cache_alloc+0x360/0x3b0 mm/slub.c:3242 dst_alloc+0x146/0x1f0 net/core/dst.c:92

Assessing the Risk of CVE-2022-49401

Access Complexity Graph

The exploitability of CVE-2022-49401 depends on two key factors: attack complexity (the level of effort required to execute an exploit) and privileges required (the access level an attacker needs).

Exploitability Analysis for CVE-2022-49401

CVE-2022-49401 presents an accessible attack vector with minimal effort required. Restricting access controls and implementing security updates are critical to reducing exploitation risks.

Understanding AC and PR

A lower complexity and fewer privilege requirements make exploitation easier. Security teams should evaluate these aspects to determine the urgency of mitigation strategies, such as patch management and access control policies.

Attack Complexity (AC) measures the difficulty in executing an exploit. A high AC means that specific conditions must be met, making an attack more challenging, while a low AC means the vulnerability can be exploited with minimal effort.

Privileges Required (PR) determine the level of system access necessary for an attack. Vulnerabilities requiring no privileges are more accessible to attackers, whereas high privilege requirements limit exploitation to authorized users with elevated access.

CVSS Score Breakdown Chart

Above is the CVSS Sub-score Breakdown for CVE-2022-49401, illustrating how Base, Impact, and Exploitability factors combine to form the overall severity rating. A higher sub-score typically indicates a more severe or easier-to-exploit vulnerability.

CIA Impact Analysis

Below is the Impact Analysis for CVE-2022-49401, showing how Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability might be affected if the vulnerability is exploited. Higher values usually signal greater potential damage.

  • Confidentiality: High
    Exploiting CVE-2022-49401 can result in unauthorized access to sensitive data, severely compromising data privacy.
  • Integrity: None
    CVE-2022-49401 poses no threat to data integrity.
  • Availability: High
    CVE-2022-49401 can disrupt system operations, potentially causing complete denial of service (DoS).

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

The EPSS score estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the near future.

EPSS Score: 0.043% (probability of exploit)

EPSS Percentile: 12.0% (lower percentile = lower relative risk)
This vulnerability is less risky than approximately 88.0% of others.

CVE-2022-49401 References

External References

CWE Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-125

CAPEC Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification

  • Overread Buffers CAPEC-540 An adversary attacks a target by providing input that causes an application to read beyond the boundary of a defined buffer. This typically occurs when a value influencing where to start or stop reading is set to reflect positions outside of the valid memory location of the buffer. This type of attack may result in exposure of sensitive information, a system crash, or arbitrary code execution.

Vulnerable Configurations

  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.18:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.18:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.18.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.18.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.18.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.18.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

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