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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2022-49016 json

net: mdiobus: fix unbalanced node reference count

published 2024-10-21 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2022-53900

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:

net: mdiobus: fix unbalanced node reference count

I got the following report while doing device(mscc-miim) load test with CONFIG_OF_UNITTEST and CONFIG_OF_DYNAMIC enabled:

OF: ERROR: memory leak, expected refcount 1 instead of 2, of_node_get()/of_node_put() unbalanced - destroy cset entry: attach overlay node /spi/soc@0/mdio@7107009c/ethernet-phy@0

If the 'fwnode' is not an acpi node, the refcount is get in fwnode_mdiobus_phy_device_register(), but it has never been put when the device is freed in the normal path. So call fwnode_handle_put() in phy_device_release() to avoid leak.

If it's an acpi node, it has never been get, but it's put in the error path, so call fwnode_handle_get() before phy_device_register() to keep get/put operation balanced.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.15.82, 6.0.12, 6.1
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 6.0.12-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49016

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-67.74
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1031.35
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1030.37
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1028.33
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1026.29
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1029.34
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1034.41
  • linux-gkeop Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1016.21

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49016

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

  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5 5.14.21-150500.55.88.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP5 5.14.21-150500.55.88.1
  • kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP5, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5 5.14.21-150500.55.88.1
  • kernel-default SLE Module for Legacy 15 SP5, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, SLE Micro 5.5 +2 more 5.14.21-150500.55.88.1
  • kernel-zfcpdump SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5 5.14.21-150500.55.88.1
  • kernel-obs-build SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP5 5.14.21-150500.55.88.1
  • kernel-default-base SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, SLE Micro 5.5 5.14.21-150500.55.88.1.150500.6.39.4
  • kernel-64kb SLES 15 SP4-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS 5.14.21-150400.24.141.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2024:4364-1SUSE-SU-2024:4131-1SUSE-SU-2024:4082-1SUSE-SU-2024:3985-1SUSE-SU-2024:3983-1

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-2022-49016 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: net: mdiobus: fix unbalanced node reference count

  • 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 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 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
  • CWE-401 Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
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.