CVE-2022-49179
Published: 26 February 2025
Summary
CVE-2022-49179 is a high-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 2.1th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) and CM-7 (Least Functionality).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2022-49179 is a use-after-free (UAF) vulnerability in the Linux kernel's BFQ I/O scheduler within the block layer. The issue occurs in the __bfq_put_async_bfqq function, where an object is accessed after being freed during queue exit operations, such as bfq_pd_offline and blkcg_deactivate_policy. This was reported via a KASAN trace during the unloading of the null_blk module on kernel version 4.19.90, involving improper handling of oom_bfqq in async queues.
A local attacker with low privileges (PR:L) can exploit this vulnerability with low complexity (AC:L) and no user interaction (UI:N). Exploitation is feasible in scenarios like switching the block elevator to BFQ via sysfs (elv_iosched_store) and then triggering queue cleanup, such as through module unload (e.g., rmmod null_blk). Successful exploitation leads to memory corruption, as evidenced by the KASAN-reported write-after-free, potentially enabling arbitrary code execution, data tampering, or denial of service, consistent with the CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and CWE-416.
Mitigation involves applying upstream kernel patches from the referenced stable commits, such as 7507ead1e9d42957c2340f2c4a0e9d00034e3366 ("block, bfq: don't move oom_bfqq") and others, which resolve the UAF by preventing the movement of oom_bfqq during queue exit. Security practitioners should update affected Linux kernels, particularly those using the BFQ scheduler, and consider disabling unnecessary I/O scheduler switches or module loading in untrusted environments.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2022-55046
Vulnerability details
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: block, bfq: don't move oom_bfqq Our test report a UAF: [ 2073.019181] ================================================================== [ 2073.019188] BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in __bfq_put_async_bfqq+0xa0/0x168 [ 2073.019191] Write of size 8 at addr ffff8000ccf64128 by…
more
task rmmod/72584 [ 2073.019192] [ 2073.019196] CPU: 0 PID: 72584 Comm: rmmod Kdump: loaded Not tainted 4.19.90-yk #5 [ 2073.019198] Hardware name: QEMU KVM Virtual Machine, BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015 [ 2073.019200] Call trace: [ 2073.019203] dump_backtrace+0x0/0x310 [ 2073.019206] show_stack+0x28/0x38 [ 2073.019210] dump_stack+0xec/0x15c [ 2073.019216] print_address_description+0x68/0x2d0 [ 2073.019220] kasan_report+0x238/0x2f0 [ 2073.019224] __asan_store8+0x88/0xb0 [ 2073.019229] __bfq_put_async_bfqq+0xa0/0x168 [ 2073.019233] bfq_put_async_queues+0xbc/0x208 [ 2073.019236] bfq_pd_offline+0x178/0x238 [ 2073.019240] blkcg_deactivate_policy+0x1f0/0x420 [ 2073.019244] bfq_exit_queue+0x128/0x178 [ 2073.019249] blk_mq_exit_sched+0x12c/0x160 [ 2073.019252] elevator_exit+0xc8/0xd0 [ 2073.019256] blk_exit_queue+0x50/0x88 [ 2073.019259] blk_cleanup_queue+0x228/0x3d8 [ 2073.019267] null_del_dev+0xfc/0x1e0 [null_blk] [ 2073.019274] null_exit+0x90/0x114 [null_blk] [ 2073.019278] __arm64_sys_delete_module+0x358/0x5a0 [ 2073.019282] el0_svc_common+0xc8/0x320 [ 2073.019287] el0_svc_handler+0xf8/0x160 [ 2073.019290] el0_svc+0x10/0x218 [ 2073.019291] [ 2073.019294] Allocated by task 14163: [ 2073.019301] kasan_kmalloc+0xe0/0x190 [ 2073.019305] kmem_cache_alloc_node_trace+0x1cc/0x418 [ 2073.019308] bfq_pd_alloc+0x54/0x118 [ 2073.019313] blkcg_activate_policy+0x250/0x460 [ 2073.019317] bfq_create_group_hierarchy+0x38/0x110 [ 2073.019321] bfq_init_queue+0x6d0/0x948 [ 2073.019325] blk_mq_init_sched+0x1d8/0x390 [ 2073.019330] elevator_switch_mq+0x88/0x170 [ 2073.019334] elevator_switch+0x140/0x270 [ 2073.019338] elv_iosched_store+0x1a4/0x2a0 [ 2073.019342] queue_attr_store+0x90/0xe0 [ 2073.019348] sysfs_kf_write+0xa8/0xe8 [ 2073.019351] kernfs_fop_write+0x1f8/0x378 [ 2073.019359] __vfs_write+0xe0/0x360 [ 2073.019363] vfs_write+0xf0/0x270 [ 2073.019367] ksys_write+0xdc/0x1b8 [ 2073.019371] __arm64_sys_write+0x50/0x60 [ 2073.019375] el0_svc_common+0xc8/0x320 [ 2073.019380] el0_svc_handler+0xf8/0x160 [ 2073.019383] el0_svc+0x10/0x218 [ 2073.019385] [ 2073.019387] Freed by task 72584: [ 2073.019391] __kasan_slab_free+0x120/0x228 [ 2073.019394] kasan_slab_free+0x10/0x18 [ 2073.019397] kfree+0x94/0x368 [ 2073.019400] bfqg_put+0x64/0xb0 [ 2073.019404] bfqg_and_blkg_put+0x90/0xb0 [ 2073.019408] bfq_put_queue+0x220/0x228 [ 2073.019413] __bfq_put_async_bfqq+0x98/0x168 [ 2073.019416] bfq_put_async_queues+0xbc/0x208 [ 2073.019420] bfq_pd_offline+0x178/0x238 [ 2073.019424] blkcg_deactivate_policy+0x1f0/0x420 [ 2073.019429] bfq_exit_queue+0x128/0x178 [ 2073.019433] blk_mq_exit_sched+0x12c/0x160 [ 2073.019437] elevator_exit+0xc8/0xd0 [ 2073.019440] blk_exit_queue+0x50/0x88 [ 2073.019443] blk_cleanup_queue+0x228/0x3d8 [ 2073.019451] null_del_dev+0xfc/0x1e0 [null_blk] [ 2073.019459] null_exit+0x90/0x114 [null_blk] [ 2073.019462] __arm64_sys_delete_module+0x358/0x5a0 [ 2073.019467] el0_svc_common+0xc8/0x320 [ 2073.019471] el0_svc_handler+0xf8/0x160 [ 2073.019474] el0_svc+0x10/0x218 [ 2073.019475] [ 2073.019479] The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff8000ccf63f00 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-1024 of size 1024 [ 2073.019484] The buggy address is located 552 bytes inside of 1024-byte region [ffff8000ccf63f00, ffff8000ccf64300) [ 2073.019486] The buggy address belongs to the page: [ 2073.019492] page:ffff7e000333d800 count:1 mapcount:0 mapping:ffff8000c0003a00 index:0x0 compound_mapcount: 0 [ 2073.020123] flags: 0x7ffff0000008100(slab|head) [ 2073.020403] raw: 07ffff0000008100 ffff7e0003334c08 ffff7e00001f5a08 ffff8000c0003a00 [ 2073.020409] ra ---truncated---
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Local kernel UAF in BFQ scheduler directly enables privilege escalation via memory corruption and arbitrary code execution.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Requires timely identification, reporting, and patching of the use-after-free flaw in the Linux kernel's BFQ I/O scheduler.
Minimizes exposure by configuring systems to disable unnecessary I/O schedulers like BFQ or restrict kernel module loading and unloading.
Deploys memory protection mechanisms like KASLR and page protections that hinder exploitation of the BFQ use-after-free vulnerability.