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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2022-48868 json

dmaengine: idxd: Let probe fail when workqueue cannot be enabled

published 2024-08-21 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2022-53747

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 15%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

dmaengine: idxd: Let probe fail when workqueue cannot be enabled

The workqueue is enabled when the appropriate driver is loaded and disabled when the driver is removed. When the driver is removed it assumes that the workqueue was enabled successfully and proceeds to free allocations made during workqueue enabling.

Failure during workqueue enabling does not prevent the driver from being loaded. This is because the error path within drv_enable_wq() returns success unless a second failure is encountered during the error path. By returning success it is possible to load the driver even if the workqueue cannot be enabled and allocations that do not exist are attempted to be freed during driver remove.

Some examples of problematic flows: (a)

idxd_dmaengine_drv_probe() -> drv_enable_wq() -> idxd_wq_request_irq(): In above flow, if idxd_wq_request_irq() fails then idxd_wq_unmap_portal() is called on error exit path, but drv_enable_wq() returns 0 because idxd_wq_disable() succeeds. The driver is thus loaded successfully.

idxd_dmaengine_drv_remove()->drv_disable_wq()->idxd_wq_unmap_portal() Above flow on driver unload triggers the WARN in devm_iounmap() because the device resource has already been removed during error path of drv_enable_wq().

(b)

idxd_dmaengine_drv_probe() -> drv_enable_wq() -> idxd_wq_request_irq(): In above flow, if idxd_wq_request_irq() fails then idxd_wq_init_percpu_ref() is never called to initialize the percpu counter, yet the driver loads successfully because drv_enable_wq() returns 0.

idxd_dmaengine_drv_remove()->__idxd_wq_quiesce()->percpu_ref_kill(): Above flow on driver unload triggers a BUG when attempting to drop the initial ref of the uninitialized percpu ref: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000010

Fix the drv_enable_wq() error path by returning the original error that indicates failure of workqueue enabling. This ensures that the probe fails when an error is encountered and the driver remove paths are only attempted when the workqueue was enabled successfully.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.15.90, 6.1.8, 6.2
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 6.1.8-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2022-48868

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-70.77
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1034.38
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1032.40
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1031.36
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1028.31
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1031.36
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1036.43
  • linux-gkeop Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1018.23

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2022-48868

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.80.1
  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.80.2
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.80.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.80.1
  • kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP5, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.80.2
  • kernel-default SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP5, SLE Module for Legacy 15 SP5, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5 +5 more 5.14.21-150500.55.80.2
  • kernel-kvmsmall openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.80.2
  • kernel-zfcpdump SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.80.2

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2024:3483-1SUSE-SU-2024:3408-1SUSE-SU-2024:3227-1SUSE-SU-2024:3209-1SUSE-SU-2024:3190-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2022-48868 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: dmaengine: idxd: Let probe fail when workqueue cannot be enabled

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

0.24% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 15% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.