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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2022-49721 json

arm64: ftrace: consistently handle PLTs.

published 2025-02-26 20 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2022-54514

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 19%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

arm64: ftrace: consistently handle PLTs.

Sometimes it is necessary to use a PLT entry to call an ftrace trampoline. This is handled by ftrace_make_call() and ftrace_make_nop(), with each having *almost* identical logic, but this is not handled by ftrace_modify_call() since its introduction in commit:

3b23e4991fb66f6d ("arm64: implement ftrace with regs")

Due to this, if we ever were to call ftrace_modify_call() for a callsite which requires a PLT entry for a trampoline, then either:

a) If the old addr requires a trampoline, ftrace_modify_call() will use an out-of-range address to generate the 'old' branch instruction. This will result in warnings from aarch64_insn_gen_branch_imm() and ftrace_modify_code(), and no instructions will be modified. As ftrace_modify_call() will return an error, this will result in subsequent internal ftrace errors.

b) If the old addr does not require a trampoline, but the new addr does, ftrace_modify_call() will use an out-of-range address to generate the 'new' branch instruction. This will result in warnings from aarch64_insn_gen_branch_imm(), and ftrace_modify_code() will replace the 'old' branch with a BRK. This will result in a kernel panic when this BRK is later executed.

Practically speaking, case (a) is vastly more likely than case (b), and typically this will result in internal ftrace errors that don't necessarily affect the rest of the system. This can be demonstrated with an out-of-tree test module which triggers ftrace_modify_call(), e.g.

| # insmod test_ftrace.ko | test_ftrace: Function test_function raw=0xffffb3749399201c, callsite=0xffffb37493992024 | branch_imm_common: offset out of range | branch_imm_common: offset out of range | ------------[ ftrace bug ]------------ | ftrace failed to modify | [<ffffb37493992024>] test_function+0x8/0x38 [test_ftrace] | actual: 1d:00:00:94 | Updating ftrace call site to call a different ftrace function | ftrace record flags: e0000002 | (2) R | expected tramp: ffffb374ae42ed54 | ------------[ cut here ]------------ | WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 165 at kernel/trace/ftrace.c:2085 ftrace_bug+0x280/0x2b0 | Modules linked in: test_ftrace(+) | CPU: 0 PID: 165 Comm: insmod Not tainted 5.19.0-rc2-00002-g4d9ead8b45ce #13 | Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT) | pstate: 60400005 (nZCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) | pc : ftrace_bug+0x280/0x2b0 | lr : ftrace_bug+0x280/0x2b0 | sp : ffff80000839ba00 | x29: ffff80000839ba00 x28: 0000000000000000 x27: ffff80000839bcf0 | x26: ffffb37493994180 x25: ffffb374b0991c28 x24: ffffb374b0d70000 | x23: 00000000ffffffea x22: ffffb374afcc33b0 x21: ffffb374b08f9cc8 | x20: ffff572b8462c000 x19: ffffb374b08f9000 x18: ffffffffffffffff | x17: 6c6c6163202c6331 x16: ffffb374ae5ad110 x15: ffffb374b0d51ee4 | x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 3435646532346561 x12: 3437336266666666 | x11: 203a706d61727420 x10: 6465746365707865 x9 : ffffb374ae5149e8 | x8 : 336266666666203a x7 : 706d617274206465 x6 : 00000000fffff167 | x5 : ffff572bffbc4a08 x4 : 00000000fffff167 x3 : 0000000000000000 | x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : ffff572b84461e00 x0 : 0000000000000022 | Call trace: | ftrace_bug+0x280/0x2b0 | ftrace_replace_code+0x98/0xa0 | ftrace_modify_all_code+0xe0/0x144 | arch_ftrace_update_code+0x14/0x20 | ftrace_startup+0xf8/0x1b0 | register_ftrace_function+0x38/0x90 | test_ftrace_init+0xd0/0x1000 [test_ftrace] | do_one_initcall+0x50/0x2b0 | do_init_module+0x50/0x1f0 | load_module+0x17c8/0x1d64 | __do_sys_finit_module+0xa8/0x100 | __arm64_sys_finit_module+0x2c/0x3c | invoke_syscall+0x50/0x120 | el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0xdc/0x100 | do_el0_svc+0x3c/0xd0 | el0_svc+0x34/0xb0 | el0t_64_sync_handler+0xbc/0x140 | el0t_64_sync+0x18c/0x190 | ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

We can solve this by consistently determining whether to use a PLT entry for an address.

Note that since (the earlier) commit:

f1a54ae9 ---truncated---

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.10.124, 5.15.49, 5.18.6, 5.19
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.18.14-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49721

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-48.54
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1020.24
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1018.24
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1016.19
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1015.17
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1018.22
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1020.25
  • linux-gkeop Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1003.5

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49721

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 RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • rv RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • perf RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • rtla RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • bpftool RHEL 9 7.3.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • libperf RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • kernel-rt RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • kernel-64k RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4

red hat advisories RHSA-2024:2394

  • 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
  • kernel-syms SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS +1 more 5.14.21-150500.55.100.1
  • kernel-source SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.5 +2 more 5.14.21-150500.55.100.1
  • kernel-default SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.5 +3 more 5.14.21-150500.55.100.1
  • kernel-obs-build SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS +1 more 5.14.21-150500.55.100.1
  • kernel-default-base SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.5 +2 more 5.14.21-150500.55.100.1.150500.6.47.1
  • kernel-rt SLE Micro 5.4, SLE Micro 5.3 5.14.21-150400.15.115.1
  • kernel-source-rt SLE Micro 5.4, SLE Micro 5.3 5.14.21-150400.15.115.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:1241-1SUSE-SU-2025:1183-1SUSE-SU-2025:1176-1SUSE-SU-2025:1027-1

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-2022-49721 updated cvss 4.7

kernel: arm64: ftrace: consistently handle PLTs.

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 kernel-rt, kernel-rt-kvm, kernel-rt-core, kernel-rt-modules, kernel-rt-debug-kvm, kernel-rt-debug-core, +12 more
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) rv 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, perf 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, rtla 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-devel-matched 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-64k-devel-matched 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-debug-devel-matched 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, +6 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) bpftool 7.3.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-64k 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-tools 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, python3-perf 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, +28 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 9) libperf 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux NFV (v. 9) kernel-rt 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-kvm 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-modules 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-debug-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, +6 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux RT (v. 9) kernel-rt 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-modules 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-debug-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-modules-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-debug-modules 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, +4 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:2394
  • 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 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

Exploit prediction

0.27% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 19% 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

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.