Skip to main content

Linux Kernel CVE-2022-49416

HIGH
Use After Free (CWE-416)
2025-02-26 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Information Disclosure Linux Use After Free Memory Corruption
8.8
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Share

Severity by source

Vendor (416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67) PRIMARY
8.8 HIGH
AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI
7.5 HIGH

Adjacent wireless vector retained; AC raised to High because reliable kernel heap exploitation from the UAF requires precise timing and memory layout control beyond the low-complexity trigger path.

3.1 AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
4.0 AV:A/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/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
7.1 MEDIUM
qualitative

Primary rating from Vendor (416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67).

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

Attack Vector
Adjacent
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 - 10:48 vuln.today
v3 (cvss_changed)
Analysis Updated
Aug 04, 2026 - 10:47 vuln.today
v2 (cvss_changed)
Re-analysis Queued
Aug 04, 2026 - 10:23 vuln.today
cvss_changed
CVSS changed
Aug 04, 2026 - 10:23 NVD
7.8 (HIGH) 8.8 (HIGH)
Analysis Generated
Mar 28, 2026 - 18:28 vuln.today
Patch released
Mar 28, 2026 - 18:28 nvd
Patch available
CVE Published
Feb 26, 2025 - 07:01 nvd
HIGH 7.8

DescriptionCVE.org

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

wifi: mac80211: fix use-after-free in chanctx code

In ieee80211_vif_use_reserved_context(), when we have an old context and the new context's replace_state is set to IEEE80211_CHANCTX_REPLACE_NONE, we free the old context in ieee80211_vif_use_reserved_reassign(). Therefore, we cannot check the old_ctx anymore, so we should set it to NULL after this point.

However, since the new_ctx replace state is clearly not IEEE80211_CHANCTX_REPLACES_OTHER, we're not going to do anything else in this function and can just return to avoid accessing the freed old_ctx.

AnalysisAI

Use-after-free in the Linux kernel's mac80211 wifi subsystem exposes wireless-enabled Linux systems to kernel memory corruption exploitable by adjacent-network unauthenticated attackers. The flaw in ieee80211_vif_use_reserved_context() allows a dangling old_ctx pointer to be dereferenced after it has been freed inside ieee80211_vif_use_reserved_reassign(), enabling heap corruption that could result in kernel panic or privilege escalation. Patch commits are available across nine upstream stable branches and are confirmed addressed by Red Hat (RHSA-2023:2951, RHSA-2023:2458) and multiple SUSE advisories; no public exploit code or CISA KEV listing has been identified at time of analysis.

Technical ContextAI

The flaw lives in mac80211, the Linux kernel's generic IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN implementation (CWE-416, Use After Free). In ieee80211_vif_use_reserved_context(), when transitioning a Virtual Interface (VIF) between channel contexts, the function calls ieee80211_vif_use_reserved_reassign(), which internally frees the old_ctx channel-context object. The calling function then unconditionally checks old_ctx->replace_state against IEEE80211_CHANCTX_REPLACES_OTHER - but old_ctx is now a dangling pointer to freed kernel heap memory. The root cause is a missing early return or NULL guard following the freeing call, a canonical use-after-free pattern. Affected products span the Linux kernel across multiple stable release series per CPE data (cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*). The channel context subsystem is exercised whenever the wireless driver performs dynamic frequency selection (DFS), multi-channel operation, or channel reassignment, making this code path reachable during normal wifi operation.

RemediationAI

The primary fix is applying one of nine upstream stable kernel patches available at git.kernel.org: commits 265bec4779a3, 2965c4cdf7ad, 4ba81e794f0f, 4f05a9e15edc, 6118bbdf69f4, 82c8e7bbdd06, 88cc8f963feb, 9f1e5cc85ad7, and b79110f2bf60. Red Hat Enterprise Linux users should apply RHSA-2023:2951 or RHSA-2023:2458 via standard subscription channels at https://access.redhat.com/errata/. SUSE Linux Enterprise users should apply SUSE-SU-2025:1027, SUSE-SU-2025:1176, SUSE-SU-2025:1183, or SUSE-SU-2025:1194 from https://www.suse.com/support/update/. Where patching is not immediately feasible, the most effective compensating control is disabling the wireless interface entirely via ip link set <wlan0> down or rfkill block wifi, which eliminates the mac80211 code path; this causes wireless service outage and is only appropriate for hosts that do not depend on wifi. Restricting physical wireless access (e.g., isolating the device to a trusted RF environment) reduces attack surface without service disruption but does not eliminate the vulnerability.

Same weakness CWE-416 – Use After Free

View all
CVE-2019-0708 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2015-5119 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2014-0322 HIGH POC
8.8
CVE-2012-4792 HIGH POC
8.8
CVE-2009-4324 HIGH POC
7.8
CVE-2015-0313 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2015-5122 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2013-2551 HIGH POC
8.8

Same technique Information Disclosure

View all
CVE-2019-2725 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2021-34523 CRITICAL POC
9.0
CVE-2013-2251 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2017-5638 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2025-24813 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2015-1701 HIGH POC
7.8
CVE-2017-0147 HIGH POC
7.5
CVE-2014-6324 HIGH POC
8.8

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: High
Product Status
Container suse/sle-micro-rancher/5.2:latest Image SLES15-SP3-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP3-HPC-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP3-Micro-5-2-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP3-Micro-5-2-BYOS-EC2-HVM Image SLES15-SP3-Micro-5-2-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP3-SAPCAL-Azure Affected
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

Share

CVE-2022-49416 vulnerability details – vuln.today
Back

This site uses cookies essential for authentication and security. No tracking or analytics cookies are used. Privacy Policy