CVE-2022-49052 | mm: fix unexpected zeroed page mapping with zram swap

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: fix unexpected zeroed page mapping with zram swap Two processes under CLONE_VM cloning, user process can be corrupted by seeing zeroed page unexpectedly. CPU A CPU B do_swap_page do_swap_page SWP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO path SWP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO path swap_readpage valid data swap_slot_free_notify delete zram entry swap_readpage zeroed(invalid) data pte_lock map the *zero data* to userspace pte_unlock pte_lock if (!pte_same) goto out_nomap; pte_unlock return and next refault will read zeroed data The swap_slot_free_notify is bogus for CLONE_VM case since it doesn't increase the refcount of swap slot at copy_mm so it couldn't catch up whether it's safe or not to discard data from backing device. In the case, only the lock it could rely on to synchronize swap slot freeing is page table lock. Thus, this patch gets rid of the swap_slot_free_notify function. With this patch, CPU A will see correct data. CPU A CPU B do_swap_page do_swap_page SWP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO path SWP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO path swap_readpage original data pte_lock map the original data swap_free swap_range_free bd_disk->fops->swap_slot_free_notify swap_readpage read zeroed data pte_unlock pte_lock if (!pte_same) goto out_nomap; pte_unlock return on next refault will see mapped data by CPU B The concern of the patch would increase memory consumption since it could keep wasted memory with compressed form in zram as well as uncompressed form in address space. However, most of cases of zram uses no readahead and do_swap_page is followed by swap_free so it will free the compressed form from in zram quickly.

Published: 2025-02-26 Last update: 2025-10-14 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-49052 is rated Low Risk (26.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.04%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-49052

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-04-11 0.06% 0.04% -0.02%
2 2026-04-06 0.03% 0.06% +0.03%
3 2025-11-21 0.03%

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-49052

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-49052

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-49052

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2022-49052 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-49052
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-49052
suse medium CVE-2022-49052 severity moderate: SUSE including 25 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 113 product×package rows across 22 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 12 SP5, SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching 12 SP5, … (22 product lines)): Known Not Affected 113. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-49052/
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-49052 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1551 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1145, ignored 146, released 145, not-affected 115. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-49052

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-49052

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 4.15, < 4.19.242 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 4.20, < 5.4.193 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.5, < 5.10.112 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.35 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 5.17.4 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 5.18 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.18:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 5.18 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.18:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-49052

cvelogic Threat Intelligence