CVE-2022-48797

CVE-2022-48797 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel with a CVSS 3.x base score of 5.5. It is not currently listed as actively exploited by CISA, and its EPSS exploit-prediction score is low.

Key facts

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: don't try to NUMA-migrate COW pages that have other uses Oded Gabbay reports that enabling NUMA balancing causes corruption with his Gaudi accelerator test load: "All the details are in the bug, but the bottom line is that somehow, this patch causes corruption when the numa balancing feature is enabled AND we don't use process affinity AND we use GUP to pin pages so our accelerator can DMA to/from system memory. Either disabling numa balancing, using process affinity to bind to specific numa-node or reverting this patch causes the bug to disappear" and Oded bisected the issue to commit 09854ba94c6a ("mm: do_wp_page() simplification"). Now, the NUMA balancing shouldn't actually be changing the writability of a page, and as such shouldn't matter for COW. But it appears it does. Suspicious. However, regardless of that, the condition for enabling NUMA faults in change_pte_range() is nonsensical. It uses "page_mapcount(page)" to decide if a COW page should be NUMA-protected or not, and that makes absolutely no sense. The number of mappings a page has is irrelevant: not only does GUP get a reference to a page as in Oded's case, but the other mappings migth be paged out and the only reference to them would be in the page count. Since we should never try to NUMA-balance a page that we can't move anyway due to other references, just fix the code to use 'page_count()'. Oded confirms that that fixes his issue. Now, this does imply that something in NUMA balancing ends up changing page protections (other than the obvious one of making the page inaccessible to get the NUMA faulting information). Otherwise the COW simplification wouldn't matter - since doing the GUP on the page would make sure it's writable. The cause of that permission change would be good to figure out too, since it clearly results in spurious COW events - but fixing the nonsensical test that just happened to work before is obviously the CorrectThing(tm) to do regardless.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2022-48797?
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: don't try to NUMA-migrate COW pages that have other uses Oded Gabbay reports that enabling NUMA balancing causes corruption with his Gaudi accelerator test load: "All the details are in the bug, but the bottom line is that somehow, this patch causes corruption when the numa balancing feature is enabled AND we don't use process affinity AND we use GUP to pin pages so our accelerator can DMA to/from system memory. Either disabling numa balancing, using process affinity to bind to specific numa-node or reverting this patch causes the bug to disappear" and Oded bisected the issue to commit 09854ba94c6a ("mm: do_wp_page() simplification"). Now, the NUMA balancing shouldn't actually be changing the writability of a page, and as such shouldn't matter for COW. But it appears it does. Suspicious. However, regardless of that, the condition for enabling NUMA faults in change_pte_range() is nonsensical. It uses "page_mapcount(page)" to decide if a COW page should be NUMA-protected or not, and that makes absolutely no sense. The number of mappings a page has is irrelevant: not only does GUP get a reference to a page as in Oded's case, but the other mappings migth be paged out and the only reference to them would be in the page count. Since we should never try to NUMA-balance a page that we can't move anyway due to other references, just fix the code to use 'page_count()'. Oded confirms that that fixes his issue. Now, this does imply that something in NUMA balancing ends up changing page protections (other than the obvious one of making the page inaccessible to get the NUMA faulting information). Otherwise the COW simplification wouldn't matter - since doing the GUP on the page would make sure it's writable. The cause of that permission change would be good to figure out too, since it clearly results in spurious COW events - but fixing the nonsensical test that just happened to work before is obviously the CorrectThing(tm) to do regardless.
How severe is CVE-2022-48797?
CVE-2022-48797 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 5.5, rated medium severity. It is exploitable over local access with low attack complexity, requires low privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is none, integrity none, and availability high.
Is CVE-2022-48797 being actively exploited?
It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 0% (15th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
What products are affected by CVE-2022-48797?
CVE-2022-48797 primarily affects Linux Linux Kernel. In total, 11 product configurations (CPEs) are listed as vulnerable; see the affected-products list for the exact versions.
How do I fix CVE-2022-48797?
Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround.
Does CVE-2022-48797 have an EU (EUVD) identifier?
Yes. CVE-2022-48797 is tracked in the ENISA EU Vulnerability Database (EUVD) as EUVD-2022-53676.
When was CVE-2022-48797 published?
CVE-2022-48797 was published on 2024-07-16 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References

Affected products (11)

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