CVE-2022-49648 | tracing/histograms: Fix memory leak problem

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing/histograms: Fix memory leak problem This reverts commit 46bbe5c671e06f070428b9be142cc4ee5cedebac. As commit 46bbe5c671e0 ("tracing: fix double free") said, the "double free" problem reported by clang static analyzer is: > In parse_var_defs() if there is a problem allocating > var_defs.expr, the earlier var_defs.name is freed. > This free is duplicated by free_var_defs() which frees > the rest of the list. However, if there is a problem allocating N-th var_defs.expr: + in parse_var_defs(), the freed 'earlier var_defs.name' is actually the N-th var_defs.name; + then in free_var_defs(), the names from 0th to (N-1)-th are freed; IF ALLOCATING PROBLEM HAPPENED HERE!!! -+ \ | 0th 1th (N-1)-th N-th V +-------------+-------------+-----+-------------+----------- var_defs: | name | expr | name | expr | ... | name | expr | name | /// +-------------+-------------+-----+-------------+----------- These two frees don't act on same name, so there was no "double free" problem before. Conversely, after that commit, we get a "memory leak" problem because the above "N-th var_defs.name" is not freed. If enable CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK and inject a fault at where the N-th var_defs.expr allocated, then execute on shell like: $ echo 'hist:key=call_site:val=$v1,$v2:v1=bytes_req,v2=bytes_alloc' > \ /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/kmem/kmalloc/trigger Then kmemleak reports: unreferenced object 0xffff8fb100ef3518 (size 8): comm "bash", pid 196, jiffies 4295681690 (age 28.538s) hex dump (first 8 bytes): 76 31 00 00 b1 8f ff ff v1...... backtrace: [<0000000038fe4895>] kstrdup+0x2d/0x60 [<00000000c99c049a>] event_hist_trigger_parse+0x206f/0x20e0 [<00000000ae70d2cc>] trigger_process_regex+0xc0/0x110 [<0000000066737a4c>] event_trigger_write+0x75/0xd0 [<000000007341e40c>] vfs_write+0xbb/0x2a0 [<0000000087fde4c2>] ksys_write+0x59/0xd0 [<00000000581e9cdf>] do_syscall_64+0x3a/0x80 [<00000000cf3b065c>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0

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

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-49648 is rated Low Risk (23.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.03%). 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-2022-49648

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 2025-11-20 0.06% 0.03% -0.02%
2 2025-11-18 0.04% 0.06% +0.01%
3 2025-02-27 0.04%

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-49648

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-2022-49648

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-49648

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2022-49648 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-2022-49648
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-49648
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-49648/
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-49648 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 135, not-affected 124, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-49648

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-49648

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 4.19.149, < 4.19.253 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.4.69, < 5.4.207 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.8.13, < 5.10.132 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.56 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 5.18.13 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 5.19 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.19:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 5.19 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.19:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 5.19 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.19:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 5.19 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.19:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 5.19 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.19:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 5.19 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.19:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-49648

cvelogic Threat Intelligence