CVE-2022-49249
Published: 26 February 2025
Summary
CVE-2022-49249 is a high-severity Out-of-bounds Read (CWE-125) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.1 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Credential Access (T1212); ranked at the 7.2th 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-2022-49249 is an out-of-bounds array access vulnerability (CWE-125) in the Linux kernel's ASoC (ALSA System on Chip) subsystem, specifically the wc938x codec driver. The issue arises from accessing enums using integer indices, which leads to out-of-bounds reads on platforms like aarch64 where the size of a long (8 bytes) exceeds the enum size (4 bytes). This flaw has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.1 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H), indicating high impact on confidentiality and availability with no integrity impact.
A local attacker with low privileges can exploit this vulnerability with low complexity and no user interaction required. Successful exploitation allows reading sensitive data from out-of-bounds memory (high confidentiality impact) and potentially causing denial of service through application crashes or kernel instability (high availability impact), while the scope remains unchanged.
Mitigation involves applying the relevant stable kernel patches, as detailed in the upstream commit references: adafea71b49ec4dbc44e0b84ec6eb602004a7a08, cc587b7c8fbbe128f6bd0dad025a0caea5e6d164, d09aee1b1da196be11ed86dd4897f228f2487613, and f03c0c94186d5876857132d97e28f20cdc100bdc. These commits fix the issue by replacing integer accesses with proper enumerated items.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2022-54977
Vulnerability details
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ASoC: codecs: wc938x: fix accessing array out of bounds for enum type Accessing enums using integer would result in array out of bounds access on platforms like aarch64 where sizeof(long)…
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is 8 compared to enum size which is 4 bytes. Fix this by using enumerated items instead of integers.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
OOB read enables local credential/memory data access (T1212); kernel instability enables targeted DoS via exploitation (T1499.004).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly requires timely remediation of kernel flaws like this out-of-bounds array access via patching the identified commits.
Provides memory protections such as ASLR and non-executable stacks that mitigate exploitation of out-of-bounds reads and crashes in kernel drivers.
Restricts unnecessary kernel functionality, such as disabling the wc938x codec driver module if not required, reducing attack surface for local low-privilege exploits.