CVE-2022-49446 | nvdimm: Fix firmware activation deadlock scenarios

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nvdimm: Fix firmware activation deadlock scenarios Lockdep reports the following deadlock scenarios for CXL root device power-management, device_prepare(), operations, and device_shutdown() operations for 'nd_region' devices: Chain exists of: &nvdimm_region_key --> &nvdimm_bus->reconfig_mutex --> system_transition_mutex Possible unsafe locking scenario: CPU0 CPU1 ---- ---- lock(system_transition_mutex); lock(&nvdimm_bus->reconfig_mutex); lock(system_transition_mutex); lock(&nvdimm_region_key); Chain exists of: &cxl_nvdimm_bridge_key --> acpi_scan_lock --> &cxl_root_key Possible unsafe locking scenario: CPU0 CPU1 ---- ---- lock(&cxl_root_key); lock(acpi_scan_lock); lock(&cxl_root_key); lock(&cxl_nvdimm_bridge_key); These stem from holding nvdimm_bus_lock() over hibernate_quiet_exec() which walks the entire system device topology taking device_lock() along the way. The nvdimm_bus_lock() is protecting against unregistration, multiple simultaneous ops callers, and preventing activate_show() from racing activate_store(). For the first 2, the lock is redundant. Unregistration already flushes all ops users, and sysfs already prevents multiple threads to be active in an ops handler at the same time. For the last userspace should already be waiting for its last activate_store() to complete, and does not need activate_show() to flush the write side, so this lock usage can be deleted in these attributes.

Published: 2025-02-26 Last update: 2025-10-01 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-49446 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-2022-49446

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 2026-05-24 0.05% 0.01% -0.04%
2 2026-04-06 0.04% 0.05% +0.01%
3 2025-02-27 0.04%

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-49446

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]
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 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-49446

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-49446

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2022-49446 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-2022-49446
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-49446
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-49446/
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-49446 medium priority: Ubuntu including 130 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1040 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 713, ignored 146, not-affected 95, released 86. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-49446

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-49446

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 5.9, < 5.10.121 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.46 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 5.17.14 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.18, < 5.18.3 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-49446

cvelogic Threat Intelligence