CVE-2022-49879 [Medium] | Security Vulnerability in Linux Kernel

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: fix BUG_ON() when directory entry has invalid rec_len The rec_len field in the directory entry has to be a multiple of 4. A corrupted filesystem image can be used to hit a BUG() in ext4_rec_len_to_disk(), called from make_indexed_dir(). ------------[ cut here ]------------ kernel BUG at fs/ext4/ext4.h:2413! ... RIP: 0010:make_indexed_dir+0x53f/0x5f0 ... Call Trace: <TASK> ? add_dirent_to_buf+0x1b2/0x200 ext4_add_entry+0x36e/0x480 ext4_add_nondir+0x2b/0xc0 ext4_create+0x163/0x200 path_openat+0x635/0xe90 do_filp_open+0xb4/0x160 ? __create_object.isra.0+0x1de/0x3b0 ? _raw_spin_unlock+0x12/0x30 do_sys_openat2+0x91/0x150 __x64_sys_open+0x6c/0xa0 do_syscall_64+0x3c/0x80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0 The fix simply adds a call to ext4_check_dir_entry() to validate the directory entry, returning -EFSCORRUPTED if the entry is invalid.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-02-25	0.02%	0.06%	+0.04%
2	2025-11-11	0.07%	0.02%	-0.05%
3	2025-07-01	—	0.07%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-02-25

0.02%

0.06%

+0.04%

2025-11-11

0.07%

0.02%

-0.05%

2025-07-01

—

0.07%

—

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]

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]

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-49879

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	not yet assigned	CVE-2022-49879 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-2022-49879
`redhat`	medium	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-49879
`suse`	medium	—	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-49879/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2022-49879 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 150, released 136, not-affected 99, needed 20, needs-triage 1.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-49879

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-49879

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
linux	linux_kernel	< 5.4.224	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 5.5, < 5.10.154	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 5.11, < 5.15.78	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 5.16, < 6.0.8	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::::::

References for CVE-2022-49879

URL	Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/156451a67b93986fb07c274ef6995ff40766c5ad	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/17a0bc9bd697f75cfdf9b378d5eb2d7409c91340	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2fa24d0274fbf913b56ee31f15bc01168669d909	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/999cff2b6ce3b45c08abf793bf55534777421327	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ce1ee2c8827fb6493e91acbd50f664cf2a972c3d	Patch

URL

CVE-2022-49879 | ext4: fix BUG_ON() when directory entry has invalid rec_len

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-49879

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-49879

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-49879

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-49879

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-49879

References for CVE-2022-49879