CVE-2022-49939 | binder: fix UAF of ref->proc caused by race condition

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: binder: fix UAF of ref->proc caused by race condition A transaction of type BINDER_TYPE_WEAK_HANDLE can fail to increment the reference for a node. In this case, the target proc normally releases the failed reference upon close as expected. However, if the target is dying in parallel the call will race with binder_deferred_release(), so the target could have released all of its references by now leaving the cleanup of the new failed reference unhandled. The transaction then ends and the target proc gets released making the ref->proc now a dangling pointer. Later on, ref->node is closed and we attempt to take spin_lock(&ref->proc->inner_lock), which leads to the use-after-free bug reported below. Let's fix this by cleaning up the failed reference on the spot instead of relying on the target to do so. ================================================================== BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in _raw_spin_lock+0xa8/0x150 Write of size 4 at addr ffff5ca207094238 by task kworker/1:0/590 CPU: 1 PID: 590 Comm: kworker/1:0 Not tainted 5.19.0-rc8 #10 Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT) Workqueue: events binder_deferred_func Call trace: dump_backtrace.part.0+0x1d0/0x1e0 show_stack+0x18/0x70 dump_stack_lvl+0x68/0x84 print_report+0x2e4/0x61c kasan_report+0xa4/0x110 kasan_check_range+0xfc/0x1a4 __kasan_check_write+0x3c/0x50 _raw_spin_lock+0xa8/0x150 binder_deferred_func+0x5e0/0x9b0 process_one_work+0x38c/0x5f0 worker_thread+0x9c/0x694 kthread+0x188/0x190 ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20

Published: 2025-06-18 Last update: 2025-11-14 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-49939 is rated Low Risk (29.8/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). 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-2022-49939

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 2025-06-18 0.02%

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-49939

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.0 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.0 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-49939

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-49939

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2022-49939 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-2022-49939
redhat https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-49939
suse medium CVE-2022-49939 severity moderate: SUSE including 25 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 134 product×package rows across 28 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7, SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching 12 SP5, … (28 product lines)): Known Not Affected 134. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-49939/
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-49939 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, released 151, ignored 150, not-affected 99, needed 5, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-49939

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-49939

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel < 4.14.293 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 4.15, < 4.19.258 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 4.20, < 5.4.213 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.5, < 5.10.142 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.66 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 5.19.8 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.0:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.0:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-49939

cvelogic Threat Intelligence