How severe is CVE-2022-49256?

CVE-2022-49256 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-2022-49256 being actively exploited?

It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 0% (16th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What products are affected by CVE-2022-49256?

CVE-2022-49256 affects Linux Linux Kernel. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.

How do I fix CVE-2022-49256?

Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround.

Does CVE-2022-49256 have an EU (EUVD) identifier?

Yes. CVE-2022-49256 is tracked in the ENISA EU Vulnerability Database (EUVD) as EUVD-2022-54970.

When was CVE-2022-49256 published?

CVE-2022-49256 was published on 2025-02-26 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

CVE-2022-49256

CVE-2022-49256 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. The underlying weakness is classified as CWE-401.

Key facts

Severity: Medium (CVSS 3.x base score 5.5)
EPSS exploit prediction: 0% (16th percentile)
Actively exploited: Not listed in CISA KEV
EU (EUVD) id: EUVD-2022-54970
Weakness: CWE-401
Affected product: Linux Linux Kernel
Published: 2025-02-26
Last modified: 2026-06-17

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: watch_queue: Actually free the watch free_watch() does everything barring actually freeing the watch object. Fix this by adding the missing kfree. kmemleak produces a report something like the following. Note that as an address can be seen in the first word, the watch would appear to have gone through call_rcu(). BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xffff88810ce4a200 (size 96): comm "syz-executor352", pid 3605, jiffies 4294947473 (age 13.720s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): e0 82 48 0d 81 88 ff ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ..H............. 80 a2 e4 0c 81 88 ff ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: [<ffffffff8214e6cc>] kmalloc include/linux/slab.h:581 [inline] [<ffffffff8214e6cc>] kzalloc include/linux/slab.h:714 [inline] [<ffffffff8214e6cc>] keyctl_watch_key+0xec/0x2e0 security/keys/keyctl.c:1800 [<ffffffff8214ec84>] __do_sys_keyctl+0x3c4/0x490 security/keys/keyctl.c:2016 [<ffffffff84493a25>] do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] [<ffffffff84493a25>] do_syscall_64+0x35/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 [<ffffffff84600068>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2022-49256?: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: watch_queue: Actually free the watch free_watch() does everything barring actually freeing the watch object. Fix this by adding the missing kfree. kmemleak produces a report something like the following. Note that as an address can be seen in the first word, the watch would appear to have gone through call_rcu(). BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xffff88810ce4a200 (size 96): comm "syz-executor352", pid 3605, jiffies 4294947473 (age 13.720s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): e0 82 48 0d 81 88 ff ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ..H............. 80 a2 e4 0c 81 88 ff ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: [<ffffffff8214e6cc>] kmalloc include/linux/slab.h:581 [inline] [<ffffffff8214e6cc>] kzalloc include/linux/slab.h:714 [inline] [<ffffffff8214e6cc>] keyctl_watch_key+0xec/0x2e0 security/keys/keyctl.c:1800 [<ffffffff8214ec84>] __do_sys_keyctl+0x3c4/0x490 security/keys/keyctl.c:2016 [<ffffffff84493a25>] do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] [<ffffffff84493a25>] do_syscall_64+0x35/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 [<ffffffff84600068>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae
How severe is CVE-2022-49256?: CVE-2022-49256 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-2022-49256 being actively exploited?: It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 0% (16th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
What products are affected by CVE-2022-49256?: CVE-2022-49256 affects Linux Linux Kernel. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.
How do I fix CVE-2022-49256?: Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround.
Does CVE-2022-49256 have an EU (EUVD) identifier?: Yes. CVE-2022-49256 is tracked in the ENISA EU Vulnerability Database (EUVD) as EUVD-2022-54970.
When was CVE-2022-49256 published?: CVE-2022-49256 was published on 2025-02-26 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References

Affected products (1)

cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

More vulnerabilities in Linux Linux Kernel

CVE-2023-2163 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): Incorrect verifier pruning in BPF in Linux Kernel >=5.4 leads to unsafe code paths being incorrectly marked as safe,…
CVE-2015-8104 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): The KVM subsystem in the Linux kernel through 4.2.6, and Xen 4.3.x through 4.6.x, allows guest OS users to cause a…
CVE-2015-1421 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): Use-after-free vulnerability in the sctp_assoc_update function in net/sctp/associola.c in the Linux kernel before…
CVE-2014-2523 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_proto_dccp.c in the Linux kernel through 3.13.6 uses a DCCP header pointer incorrectly,…
CVE-2010-2495 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): The pppol2tp_xmit function in drivers/net/pppol2tp.c in the L2TP implementation in the Linux kernel before 2.6.34 does…
CVE-2010-2521 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): Multiple buffer overflows in fs/nfsd/nfs4xdr.c in the XDR implementation in the NFS server in the Linux kernel before…

All CVEs affecting Linux Linux Kernel →

Other CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime) vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-46289 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: lib/scatterlist: fix length calculations in…
CVE-2022-0742 — Critical (CVSS 9.1): Memory leak in icmp6 implementation in Linux Kernel 5.13+ allows a remote attacker to DoS a host by making it go…
CVE-2024-25450 — High (CVSS 8.8): imlib2 v1.9.1 was discovered to mishandle memory allocation in the function init_imlib_fonts().
CVE-2023-33718 — High (CVSS 8.8): mp4v2 v2.1.3 was discovered to contain a memory leak via MP4File::ReadString() at mp4file_io.cpp
CVE-2021-40633 — High (CVSS 8.8): A memory leak (out-of-memory) in gif2rgb in util/gif2rgb.c in giflib 5.1.4 allows remote attackers trigger an out of…
CVE-2021-3492 — High (CVSS 8.8): Shiftfs, an out-of-tree stacking file system included in Ubuntu Linux kernels, did not properly handle faults occurring…

Browse all CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime) vulnerabilities →