How severe is CVE-2022-49440?

CVE-2022-49440 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-2022-49440 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-2022-49440?

CVE-2022-49440 affects Linux Linux Kernel. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.

How do I fix CVE-2022-49440?

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

Does CVE-2022-49440 have an EU (EUVD) identifier?

Yes. CVE-2022-49440 is tracked in the ENISA EU Vulnerability Database (EUVD) as EUVD-2022-54789.

When was CVE-2022-49440 published?

CVE-2022-49440 was published on 2025-02-26 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

CVE-2022-49440

CVE-2022-49440 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

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-2022-54789
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: powerpc/rtas: Keep MSR[RI] set when calling RTAS RTAS runs in real mode (MSR[DR] and MSR[IR] unset) and in 32-bit big endian mode (MSR[SF,LE] unset). The change in MSR is done in enter_rtas() in a relatively complex way, since the MSR value could be hardcoded. Furthermore, a panic has been reported when hitting the watchdog interrupt while running in RTAS, this leads to the following stack trace: watchdog: CPU 24 Hard LOCKUP watchdog: CPU 24 TB:997512652051031, last heartbeat TB:997504470175378 (15980ms ago) ... Supported: No, Unreleased kernel CPU: 24 PID: 87504 Comm: drmgr Kdump: loaded Tainted: G E X 5.14.21-150400.71.1.bz196362_2-default #1 SLE15-SP4 (unreleased) 0d821077ef4faa8dfaf370efb5fdca1fa35f4e2c NIP: 000000001fb41050 LR: 000000001fb4104c CTR: 0000000000000000 REGS: c00000000fc33d60 TRAP: 0100 Tainted: G E X (5.14.21-150400.71.1.bz196362_2-default) MSR: 8000000002981000 <SF,VEC,VSX,ME> CR: 48800002 XER: 20040020 CFAR: 000000000000011c IRQMASK: 1 GPR00: 0000000000000003 ffffffffffffffff 0000000000000001 00000000000050dc GPR04: 000000001ffb6100 0000000000000020 0000000000000001 000000001fb09010 GPR08: 0000000020000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 GPR12: 80040000072a40a8 c00000000ff8b680 0000000000000007 0000000000000034 GPR16: 000000001fbf6e94 000000001fbf6d84 000000001fbd1db0 000000001fb3f008 GPR20: 000000001fb41018 ffffffffffffffff 000000000000017f fffffffffffff68f GPR24: 000000001fb18fe8 000000001fb3e000 000000001fb1adc0 000000001fb1cf40 GPR28: 000000001fb26000 000000001fb460f0 000000001fb17f18 000000001fb17000 NIP [000000001fb41050] 0x1fb41050 LR [000000001fb4104c] 0x1fb4104c Call Trace: Instruction dump: XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX Oops: Unrecoverable System Reset, sig: 6 [#1] LE PAGE_SIZE=64K MMU=Hash SMP NR_CPUS=2048 NUMA pSeries ... Supported: No, Unreleased kernel CPU: 24 PID: 87504 Comm: drmgr Kdump: loaded Tainted: G E X 5.14.21-150400.71.1.bz196362_2-default #1 SLE15-SP4 (unreleased) 0d821077ef4faa8dfaf370efb5fdca1fa35f4e2c NIP: 000000001fb41050 LR: 000000001fb4104c CTR: 0000000000000000 REGS: c00000000fc33d60 TRAP: 0100 Tainted: G E X (5.14.21-150400.71.1.bz196362_2-default) MSR: 8000000002981000 <SF,VEC,VSX,ME> CR: 48800002 XER: 20040020 CFAR: 000000000000011c IRQMASK: 1 GPR00: 0000000000000003 ffffffffffffffff 0000000000000001 00000000000050dc GPR04: 000000001ffb6100 0000000000000020 0000000000000001 000000001fb09010 GPR08: 0000000020000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 GPR12: 80040000072a40a8 c00000000ff8b680 0000000000000007 0000000000000034 GPR16: 000000001fbf6e94 000000001fbf6d84 000000001fbd1db0 000000001fb3f008 GPR20: 000000001fb41018 ffffffffffffffff 000000000000017f fffffffffffff68f GPR24: 000000001fb18fe8 000000001fb3e000 000000001fb1adc0 000000001fb1cf40 GPR28: 000000001fb26000 000000001fb460f0 000000001fb17f18 000000001fb17000 NIP [000000001fb41050] 0x1fb41050 LR [000000001fb4104c] 0x1fb4104c Call Trace: Instruction dump: XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX ---[ end trace 3ddec07f638c34a2 ]--- This happens because MSR[RI] is unset when entering RTAS but there is no valid reason to not set it here. RTAS is expected to be called with MSR[RI] as specified in PAPR+ section "7.2.1 Machine State": R1–7.2.1–9. If called with MSR[RI] equal to 1, then RTAS must protect its own critical regions from recursion by setting the MSR[RI] bit to 0 when in the critical regions. Fixing this by reviewing the way MSR is compute before calling RTAS. Now a hardcoded value meaning real ---truncated---

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2022-49440?: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc/rtas: Keep MSR[RI] set when calling RTAS RTAS runs in real mode (MSR[DR] and MSR[IR] unset) and in 32-bit big endian mode (MSR[SF,LE] unset). The change in MSR is done in enter_rtas() in a relatively complex way, since the MSR value could be hardcoded. Furthermore, a panic has been reported when hitting the watchdog interrupt while running in RTAS, this leads to the following stack trace: watchdog: CPU 24 Hard LOCKUP watchdog: CPU 24 TB:997512652051031, last heartbeat TB:997504470175378 (15980ms ago) ... Supported: No, Unreleased kernel CPU: 24 PID: 87504 Comm: drmgr Kdump: loaded Tainted: G E X 5.14.21-150400.71.1.bz196362_2-default #1 SLE15-SP4 (unreleased) 0d821077ef4faa8dfaf370efb5fdca1fa35f4e2c NIP: 000000001fb41050 LR: 000000001fb4104c CTR: 0000000000000000 REGS: c00000000fc33d60 TRAP: 0100 Tainted: G E X (5.14.21-150400.71.1.bz196362_2-default) MSR: 8000000002981000 <SF,VEC,VSX,ME> CR: 48800002 XER: 20040020 CFAR: 000000000000011c IRQMASK: 1 GPR00: 0000000000000003 ffffffffffffffff 0000000000000001 00000000000050dc GPR04: 000000001ffb6100 0000000000000020 0000000000000001 000000001fb09010 GPR08: 0000000020000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 GPR12: 80040000072a40a8 c00000000ff8b680 0000000000000007 0000000000000034 GPR16: 000000001fbf6e94 000000001fbf6d84 000000001fbd1db0 000000001fb3f008 GPR20: 000000001fb41018 ffffffffffffffff 000000000000017f fffffffffffff68f GPR24: 000000001fb18fe8 000000001fb3e000 000000001fb1adc0 000000001fb1cf40 GPR28: 000000001fb26000 000000001fb460f0 000000001fb17f18 000000001fb17000 NIP [000000001fb41050] 0x1fb41050 LR [000000001fb4104c] 0x1fb4104c Call Trace: Instruction dump: XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX Oops: Unrecoverable System Reset, sig: 6 [#1] LE PAGE_SIZE=64K MMU=Hash SMP NR_CPUS=2048 NUMA pSeries ... Supported: No, Unreleased kernel CPU: 24 PID: 87504 Comm: drmgr Kdump: loaded Tainted: G E X 5.14.21-150400.71.1.bz196362_2-default #1 SLE15-SP4 (unreleased) 0d821077ef4faa8dfaf370efb5fdca1fa35f4e2c NIP: 000000001fb41050 LR: 000000001fb4104c CTR: 0000000000000000 REGS: c00000000fc33d60 TRAP: 0100 Tainted: G E X (5.14.21-150400.71.1.bz196362_2-default) MSR: 8000000002981000 <SF,VEC,VSX,ME> CR: 48800002 XER: 20040020 CFAR: 000000000000011c IRQMASK: 1 GPR00: 0000000000000003 ffffffffffffffff 0000000000000001 00000000000050dc GPR04: 000000001ffb6100 0000000000000020 0000000000000001 000000001fb09010 GPR08: 0000000020000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 GPR12: 80040000072a40a8 c00000000ff8b680 0000000000000007 0000000000000034 GPR16: 000000001fbf6e94 000000001fbf6d84 000000001fbd1db0 000000001fb3f008 GPR20: 000000001fb41018 ffffffffffffffff 000000000000017f fffffffffffff68f GPR24: 000000001fb18fe8 000000001fb3e000 000000001fb1adc0 000000001fb1cf40 GPR28: 000000001fb26000 000000001fb460f0 000000001fb17f18 000000001fb17000 NIP [000000001fb41050] 0x1fb41050 LR [000000001fb4104c] 0x1fb4104c Call Trace: Instruction dump: XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX ---[ end trace 3ddec07f638c34a2 ]--- This happens because MSR[RI] is unset when entering RTAS but there is no valid reason to not set it here. RTAS is expected to be called with MSR[RI] as specified in PAPR+ section "7.2.1 Machine State": R1–7.2.1–9. If called with MSR[RI] equal to 1, then RTAS must protect its own critical regions from recursion by setting the MSR[RI] bit to 0 when in the critical regions. Fixing this by reviewing the way MSR is compute before calling RTAS. Now a hardcoded value meaning real ---truncated---
How severe is CVE-2022-49440?: CVE-2022-49440 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-2022-49440 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-2022-49440?: CVE-2022-49440 affects Linux Linux Kernel. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.
How do I fix CVE-2022-49440?: Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround.
Does CVE-2022-49440 have an EU (EUVD) identifier?: Yes. CVE-2022-49440 is tracked in the ENISA EU Vulnerability Database (EUVD) as EUVD-2022-54789.
When was CVE-2022-49440 published?: CVE-2022-49440 was published on 2025-02-26 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References

Affected products (1)

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

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