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Linux Kernel CVE-2022-49093

CRITICAL
Use After Free (CWE-416)
2025-02-26 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Critical
Disputed · 9.8 Vendor: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
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Severity by source

Sources disagree (Medium–Critical)
Vendor (416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67) PRIMARY
9.8 CRITICAL
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI
7.0 HIGH

Triggered by inbound traffic (AV:N, PR:N) but only on specific page_pool-fragment drivers with precise buffer/clone timing (AC:H); impact is mainly crash/DoS (A:H) with uncontrolled, non-deterministic corruption (C:L/I:L).

3.1 AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H
4.0 AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
SUSE
7.8 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Red Hat
7.0 MEDIUM
qualitative

vuln.today treats the vendor’s rating as authoritative. A higher third-party CVSS (e.g. CISA-ADP) is shown for transparency but does not drive the headline severity.

CVSS VectorVendor: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

7
Analysis Updated
Aug 04, 2026 - 10:30 vuln.today
v2 (cvss_changed)
Re-analysis Queued
Aug 04, 2026 - 10:23 vuln.today
cvss_changed
Severity Changed
Aug 04, 2026 - 10:23 NVD
HIGH CRITICAL
CVSS changed
Aug 04, 2026 - 10:23 NVD
7.8 (HIGH) 9.8 (CRITICAL)
Analysis Generated
Mar 28, 2026 - 18:28 vuln.today
Patch released
Mar 28, 2026 - 18:28 nvd
Patch available
CVE Published
Feb 26, 2025 - 07:00 nvd
HIGH 7.8

DescriptionCVE.org

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

skbuff: fix coalescing for page_pool fragment recycling

Fix a use-after-free when using page_pool with page fragments. We encountered this problem during normal RX in the hns3 driver:

(1) Initially we have three descriptors in the RX queue. The first one allocates PAGE1 through page_pool, and the other two allocate one half of PAGE2 each. Page references look like this:

RX_BD1 _______ PAGE1 RX_BD2 _______ PAGE2 RX_BD3 _________/

(2) Handle RX on the first descriptor. Allocate SKB1, eventually added to the receive queue by tcp_queue_rcv().

(3) Handle RX on the second descriptor. Allocate SKB2 and pass it to netif_receive_skb():

netif_receive_skb(SKB2) ip_rcv(SKB2) SKB3 = skb_clone(SKB2)

SKB2 and SKB3 share a reference to PAGE2 through skb_shinfo()->dataref. The other ref to PAGE2 is still held by RX_BD3:

SKB2 ---+- PAGE2 SKB3 __/ / RX_BD3 _________/

(3b) Now while handling TCP, coalesce SKB3 with SKB1:

tcp_v4_rcv(SKB3) tcp_try_coalesce(to=SKB1, from=SKB3) // succeeds kfree_skb_partial(SKB3) skb_release_data(SKB3) // drops one dataref

SKB1 _____ PAGE1 \____ SKB2 _____ PAGE2 / RX_BD3 _________/

In skb_try_coalesce(), __skb_frag_ref() takes a page reference to PAGE2, where it should instead have increased the page_pool frag reference, pp_frag_count. Without coalescing, when releasing both SKB2 and SKB3, a single reference to PAGE2 would be dropped. Now when releasing SKB1 and SKB2, two references to PAGE2 will be dropped, resulting in underflow.

(3c) Drop SKB2:

af_packet_rcv(SKB2) consume_skb(SKB2) skb_release_data(SKB2) // drops second dataref page_pool_return_skb_page(PAGE2) // drops one pp_frag_count

SKB1 _____ PAGE1 \____ PAGE2 / RX_BD3 _________/

(4) Userspace calls recvmsg() Copies SKB1 and releases it. Since SKB3 was coalesced with SKB1, we release the SKB3 page as well:

tcp_eat_recv_skb(SKB1) skb_release_data(SKB1) page_pool_return_skb_page(PAGE1) page_pool_return_skb_page(PAGE2) // drops second pp_frag_count

(5) PAGE2 is freed, but the third RX descriptor was still using it! In our case this causes IOMMU faults, but it would silently corrupt memory if the IOMMU was disabled.

Change the logic that checks whether pp_recycle SKBs can be coalesced. We still reject differing pp_recycle between 'from' and 'to' SKBs, but in order to avoid the situation described above, we also reject coalescing when both 'from' and 'to' are pp_recycled and 'from' is cloned.

The new logic allows coalescing a cloned pp_recycle SKB into a page refcounted one, because in this case the release (4) will drop the right reference, the one taken by skb_try_coalesce().

AnalysisAI

Use-after-free in the Linux kernel networking stack (skbuff) corrupts memory when page_pool fragment recycling coalesces a cloned socket buffer, first observed as IOMMU faults during normal RX traffic on the HiSilicon hns3 driver. When two half-page fragments and a cloned skb are coalesced via skb_try_coalesce(), a plain page reference is taken instead of incrementing pp_frag_count, causing a page still owned by an in-flight RX descriptor to be freed early. Rated CVSS 9.8 by NVD, but EPSS is only 0.04% (14th percentile), no public exploit is identified at time of analysis, and it is not in CISA KEV.

Technical ContextAI

The bug lives in net/core/skbuff.c in the skb (socket buffer) coalescing path that interacts with page_pool, the kernel's DMA-aware page allocator used by high-performance NIC drivers for zero-copy RX. Page_pool supports splitting a single page into fragments tracked by a dedicated per-page counter, pp_frag_count, rather than the normal struct page refcount. During skb_try_coalesce(), __skb_frag_ref() incremented the ordinary page refcount instead of pp_frag_count for a pp_recycle skb, so on release the two counters were decremented against different accounting, driving pp_frag_count to underflow and freeing a page that a third RX descriptor still referenced. This is a classic CWE-416 Use-After-Free rooted in inconsistent reference-count ownership between two coexisting refcounting schemes for the same physical page.

RemediationAI

Patch available per vendor advisory - apply the upstream stable fix committed in git.kernel.org commits 1effe8ca4e34c34cdd9318436a4232dcb582ebf4, 72bb856d16e883437023ff2ff77d0c498018728a, ba965e8605aee5387cecaa28fcf7ee9f61779a49 and c4fa19615806a9a7e518c295b39175aa47a685ac, which change skb coalescing to reject merging when both skbs are pp_recycled and the 'from' skb is cloned. On enterprise distributions, upgrade to the fixed kernels shipped in RHSA-2022:8267 (https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2022:8267) or the relevant SUSE-SU-2025 updates (https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2025:1027/) rather than patching source. If immediate patching is impossible on affected HiSilicon hns3 hosts, a compensating measure is to disable page_pool fragment recycling for the driver (where a module/driver option exposes it) or run a kernel/driver build without page-fragment RX, which restores correctness at the cost of higher per-packet memory pressure and reduced RX throughput; keeping the IOMMU enabled also converts silent memory corruption into a detectable fault as a stopgap.

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: High
Product Status
Container suse/sle-micro-rancher/5.3:latest Container suse/sle-micro-rancher/5.4:latest Image SLES15-SP4-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-CHOST-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-CHOST-BYOS-Aliyun Image SLES15-SP4-CHOST-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-CHOST-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-CHOST-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-CHOST-BYOS-SAP-CCloud Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-Hardened-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-Hardened-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-Hardened-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-Hardened-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-Manager-Proxy-4-3-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-Manager-Proxy-4-3-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-Manager-Proxy-4-3-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-Manager-Proxy-4-3-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-Manager-Server-4-3-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-Manager-Server-4-3-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-Manager-Server-4-3-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-Manager-Server-4-3-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-3 Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-3-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-3-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-3-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-3-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-3-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-4 Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-4-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-4-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-4-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-4-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-4-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-4-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-SAP Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-SAPCAL Image SLES15-SP4-SAPCAL-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-SAPCAL-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-SAPCAL-GCE Affected
Container suse/sle-micro/base-5.5:2.0.4-5.8.160 Image SLES15-SP5-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP5-CHOST-BYOS-Aliyun Image SLES15-SP5-CHOST-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-CHOST-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-CHOST-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP5-CHOST-BYOS-GDC Image SLES15-SP5-CHOST-BYOS-SAP-CCloud Image SLES15-SP5-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-GCE Image SLES15-SP5-HPC-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-HPC-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-HPC-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP5-Hardened-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-Hardened-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-Hardened-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP5-Manager-Proxy-5-0-BYOS Image SLES15-SP5-Manager-Proxy-5-0-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-Manager-Proxy-5-0-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-Manager-Proxy-5-0-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP5-Manager-Server-5-0 Image SLES15-SP5-Manager-Server-5-0-Azure-llc Image SLES15-SP5-Manager-Server-5-0-Azure-ltd Image SLES15-SP5-Manager-Server-5-0-BYOS Image SLES15-SP5-Manager-Server-5-0-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-Manager-Server-5-0-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-Manager-Server-5-0-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP5-Manager-Server-5-0-EC2-llc Image SLES15-SP5-Manager-Server-5-0-EC2-ltd Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5 Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5-BYOS Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5-GCE Image SLES15-SP5-SAPCAL-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-SAPCAL-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-SAPCAL-GCE Affected
Container suse/sle-micro/kvm-5.5:2.0.4-3.5.304 Affected
Container suse/sle-micro/rt-5.5:2.0.4-4.5.352 Affected
Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Azure-LI-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Azure-LI-BYOS-Production Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Azure-VLI-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Azure-VLI-BYOS-Production Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Hardened Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Hardened-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Hardened-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Hardened-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Hardened-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Hardened-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Hardened-GCE Affected

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CVE-2022-49093 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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