high 8.8

CVE-2022-49159 json

scsi: qla2xxx: Implement ref count for SRB

published 2025-02-26 20 mo ago modified 2026-10-15 24 d ago also EUVD-2022-55066

cvss: 8.8; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.3%; EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 26%
public exploits: 0; none known

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

scsi: qla2xxx: Implement ref count for SRB

The timeout handler and the done function are racing. When qla2x00_async_iocb_timeout() starts to run it can be preempted by the normal response path (via the firmware?). qla24xx_async_gpsc_sp_done() releases the SRB unconditionally. When scheduling back to qla2x00_async_iocb_timeout() qla24xx_async_abort_cmd() will access an freed sp->qpair pointer:

qla2xxx [0000:83:00.0]-2871:0: Async-gpsc timeout - hdl=63d portid=234500 50:06:0e:80:08:77:b6:21. qla2xxx [0000:83:00.0]-2853:0: Async done-gpsc res 0, WWPN 50:06:0e:80:08:77:b6:21 qla2xxx [0000:83:00.0]-2854:0: Async-gpsc OUT WWPN 20:45:00:27:f8:75:33:00 speeds=2c00 speed=0400. qla2xxx [0000:83:00.0]-28d8:0: qla24xx_handle_gpsc_event 50:06:0e:80:08:77:b6:21 DS 7 LS 6 rc 0 login 1|1 rscn 1|0 lid 5 BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0000000000000004 IP: qla24xx_async_abort_cmd+0x1b/0x1c0 [qla2xxx]

Obvious solution to this is to introduce a reference counter. One reference is taken for the normal code path (the 'good' case) and one for the timeout path. As we always race between the normal good case and the timeout/abort handler we need to serialize it. Also we cannot assume any order between the handlers. Since this is slow path we can use proper synchronization via locks.

When we are able to cancel a timer (del_timer returns 1) we know there can't be any error handling in progress because the timeout handler hasn't expired yet, thus we can safely decrement the refcounter by one.

If we are not able to cancel the timer, we know an abort handler is running. We have to make sure we call sp->done() in the abort handlers before calling kref_put().

Patch / fix

fixed in 1 distros 3 links 4

Linux Linux 5.15.33, 5.16.19, 5.17.2, 5.18

debian ubuntu suse

linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.17.3-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49159

linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-37.39
linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1011.14
linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1008.12
linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1008.10
linux-ibm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1007.8
linux-kvm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1010.11
linux-azure Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1010.12
linux-raspi Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1011.13

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49159

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 SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS, Enterprise Storage 7.1 5.3.18-150300.59.201.1
kernel-syms SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS +1 more 5.3.18-150300.59.201.1
kernel-source SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS +1 more 5.3.18-150300.59.201.1
kernel-default SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.2 +5 more 5.3.18-150300.59.201.1
kernel-preempt SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS +1 more 5.3.18-150300.59.201.1
kernel-obs-build SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS +1 more 5.3.18-150300.59.201.1
kernel-default-base SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.2 +3 more 5.3.18-150300.59.201.1.150300.18.120.1
kernel-64kb SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS 5.14.21-150500.55.100.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:1293-1 SUSE-SU-2025:1263-1 SUSE-SU-2025:1241-1 SUSE-SU-2025:1194-1 SUSE-SU-2025:1183-1 SUSE-SU-2025:1176-1

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-2022-49159 updated 2026-11-07 cvss 4.4

kernel: scsi: qla2xxx: Implement ref count for SRB

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
affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
affected: no fix available
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
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: total
Assessed: 24 d ago (2026-10-15)

Exploit prediction

0.33% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 26% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.1	8.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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-476 NULL Pointer Dereference

Technology feeds

Linux kernel rss critical rss

References

Sources

CVE List CVE-2022-49159
NVD CVE-2022-49159

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.

Summary