CVE-2022-49086 | net: openvswitch: fix leak of nested actions

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: openvswitch: fix leak of nested actions While parsing user-provided actions, openvswitch module may dynamically allocate memory and store pointers in the internal copy of the actions. So this memory has to be freed while destroying the actions. Currently there are only two such actions: ct() and set(). However, there are many actions that can hold nested lists of actions and ovs_nla_free_flow_actions() just jumps over them leaking the memory. For example, removal of the flow with the following actions will lead to a leak of the memory allocated by nf_ct_tmpl_alloc(): actions:clone(ct(commit),0) Non-freed set() action may also leak the 'dst' structure for the tunnel info including device references. Under certain conditions with a high rate of flow rotation that may cause significant memory leak problem (2MB per second in reporter's case). The problem is also hard to mitigate, because the user doesn't have direct control over the datapath flows generated by OVS. Fix that by iterating over all the nested actions and freeing everything that needs to be freed recursively. New build time assertion should protect us from this problem if new actions will be added in the future. Unfortunately, openvswitch module doesn't use NLA_F_NESTED, so all attributes has to be explicitly checked. sample() and clone() actions are mixing extra attributes into the user-provided action list. That prevents some code generalization too.

Published: 2025-02-26 Last update: 2025-09-23 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-49086 is rated Low Risk (22.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.01%). 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-2022-49086

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 2026-04-12 0.06% 0.01% -0.05%
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-2022-49086

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-2022-49086

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-49086

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2022-49086 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-2022-49086
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-49086
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-49086/
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-49086 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 149, released 129, not-affected 109, needed 19. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-49086

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-49086

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 4.3, < 4.19.249 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 4.20, < 5.4.200 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.5, < 5.10.111 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.34 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 5.16.20 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.17, < 5.17.3 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 5.18 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.18:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-49086

cvelogic Threat Intelligence