CVE-2022-49803 | netdevsim: Fix memory leak of nsim_dev->fa_cookie

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netdevsim: Fix memory leak of nsim_dev->fa_cookie kmemleak reports this issue: unreferenced object 0xffff8881bac872d0 (size 8): comm "sh", pid 58603, jiffies 4481524462 (age 68.065s) hex dump (first 8 bytes): 04 00 00 00 de ad be ef ........ backtrace: [<00000000c80b8577>] __kmalloc+0x49/0x150 [<000000005292b8c6>] nsim_dev_trap_fa_cookie_write+0xc1/0x210 [netdevsim] [<0000000093d78e77>] full_proxy_write+0xf3/0x180 [<000000005a662c16>] vfs_write+0x1c5/0xaf0 [<000000007aabf84a>] ksys_write+0xed/0x1c0 [<000000005f1d2e47>] do_syscall_64+0x3b/0x90 [<000000006001c6ec>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd The issue occurs in the following scenarios: nsim_dev_trap_fa_cookie_write() kmalloc() fa_cookie nsim_dev->fa_cookie = fa_cookie .. nsim_drv_remove() The fa_cookie allocked in nsim_dev_trap_fa_cookie_write() is not freed. To fix, add kfree(nsim_dev->fa_cookie) to nsim_drv_remove().

Published: 2025-05-01 Last update: 2026-06-01 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-49803 is rated Low Risk (29.8/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.07%). 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-2022-49803

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 2026-02-25 0.02% 0.07% +0.06%
2 2025-05-02 0.02%

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-49803

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-2022-49803

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2022-49803

GHSA-whrx-8qvw-6p89 · Severity: medium — In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netdevsim: Fix memory leak...

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-49803

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2022-49803 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-49803
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-49803
suse medium CVE-2022-49803 severity moderate: SUSE including 25 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 140 product×package rows across 29 product lines (SLES-LTSS-TERADATA 15 SP2, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7, … (29 product lines)): Known Not Affected 140. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-49803/
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-49803 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, not-affected 135, released 92, needed 33. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-49803

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-49803

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 5.7, < 6.0.10 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.1:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.1:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.1:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.1:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.1:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-49803

cvelogic Threat Intelligence