CVE-2022-49505
Published: 26 February 2025
Summary
CVE-2022-49505 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 2.5th 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 CM-7 (Least Functionality) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2022-49505 is a use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel's NFC subsystem. It stems from a flaw introduced by commit 3e3b5dfcd16a, which reorders logic in nfc_{un,}register_device but fails to properly NULL out the dev->rfkill pointer after unregistration. This allows the rfkill object to be dereferenced in nfc_dev_up even after device_del(&dev->dev), as the device_is_registered check does not fully prevent access. The issue was detected by KASAN in kernel 5.18-rc2, manifesting as a read of size 8 at a freed address during rfkill_blocked calls triggered via NFC netlink messages.
A local attacker with low privileges can exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted netlink messages to the NFC generic netlink family, specifically invoking nfc_genl_dev_up after rfkill unregistration. This leads to a use-after-free in nfc_dev_up at rfkill_blocked, resulting in a kernel crash as shown in the provided trace from a fuzzing task. The CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) indicates high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, potentially enabling denial of service or privilege escalation through memory corruption.
Mitigation is provided via upstream patches applied to stable kernel branches, as detailed in the referenced commits: 1632be63862f183cd5cf1cc094e698e6ec005dfd, 1b0e81416a24d6e9b8c2341e22e8bf48f8b8bfc9, 2a1b5110c95e4d49c8c3906270dfcde680a5a7be, 4a68938f43b7c2663e4c90bb9bbe29ac8b9a42a0, and 4f5d71930f41be78557f9714393179025baacd65. These fixes ensure dev->rfkill is NULLed to prevent use-after-free dereferences.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2022-54724
Vulnerability details
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: NFC: NULL out the dev->rfkill to prevent UAF Commit 3e3b5dfcd16a ("NFC: reorder the logic in nfc_{un,}register_device") assumes the device_is_registered() in function nfc_dev_up() will help to check when the rfkill is…
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unregistered. However, this check only take effect when device_del(&dev->dev) is done in nfc_unregister_device(). Hence, the rfkill object is still possible be dereferenced. The crash trace in latest kernel (5.18-rc2): [ 68.760105] ================================================================== [ 68.760330] BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in __lock_acquire+0x3ec1/0x6750 [ 68.760756] Read of size 8 at addr ffff888009c93018 by task fuzz/313 [ 68.760756] [ 68.760756] CPU: 0 PID: 313 Comm: fuzz Not tainted 5.18.0-rc2 #4 [ 68.760756] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.14.0-0-g155821a1990b-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [ 68.760756] Call Trace: [ 68.760756] <TASK> [ 68.760756] dump_stack_lvl+0x57/0x7d [ 68.760756] print_report.cold+0x5e/0x5db [ 68.760756] ? __lock_acquire+0x3ec1/0x6750 [ 68.760756] kasan_report+0xbe/0x1c0 [ 68.760756] ? __lock_acquire+0x3ec1/0x6750 [ 68.760756] __lock_acquire+0x3ec1/0x6750 [ 68.760756] ? lockdep_hardirqs_on_prepare+0x410/0x410 [ 68.760756] ? register_lock_class+0x18d0/0x18d0 [ 68.760756] lock_acquire+0x1ac/0x4f0 [ 68.760756] ? rfkill_blocked+0xe/0x60 [ 68.760756] ? lockdep_hardirqs_on_prepare+0x410/0x410 [ 68.760756] ? mutex_lock_io_nested+0x12c0/0x12c0 [ 68.760756] ? nla_get_range_signed+0x540/0x540 [ 68.760756] ? _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x4e/0x50 [ 68.760756] _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x39/0x50 [ 68.760756] ? rfkill_blocked+0xe/0x60 [ 68.760756] rfkill_blocked+0xe/0x60 [ 68.760756] nfc_dev_up+0x84/0x260 [ 68.760756] nfc_genl_dev_up+0x90/0xe0 [ 68.760756] genl_family_rcv_msg_doit+0x1f4/0x2f0 [ 68.760756] ? genl_family_rcv_msg_attrs_parse.constprop.0+0x230/0x230 [ 68.760756] ? security_capable+0x51/0x90 [ 68.760756] genl_rcv_msg+0x280/0x500 [ 68.760756] ? genl_get_cmd+0x3c0/0x3c0 [ 68.760756] ? lock_acquire+0x1ac/0x4f0 [ 68.760756] ? nfc_genl_dev_down+0xe0/0xe0 [ 68.760756] ? lockdep_hardirqs_on_prepare+0x410/0x410 [ 68.760756] netlink_rcv_skb+0x11b/0x340 [ 68.760756] ? genl_get_cmd+0x3c0/0x3c0 [ 68.760756] ? netlink_ack+0x9c0/0x9c0 [ 68.760756] ? netlink_deliver_tap+0x136/0xb00 [ 68.760756] genl_rcv+0x1f/0x30 [ 68.760756] netlink_unicast+0x430/0x710 [ 68.760756] ? memset+0x20/0x40 [ 68.760756] ? netlink_attachskb+0x740/0x740 [ 68.760756] ? __build_skb_around+0x1f4/0x2a0 [ 68.760756] netlink_sendmsg+0x75d/0xc00 [ 68.760756] ? netlink_unicast+0x710/0x710 [ 68.760756] ? netlink_unicast+0x710/0x710 [ 68.760756] sock_sendmsg+0xdf/0x110 [ 68.760756] __sys_sendto+0x19e/0x270 [ 68.760756] ? __ia32_sys_getpeername+0xa0/0xa0 [ 68.760756] ? fd_install+0x178/0x4c0 [ 68.760756] ? fd_install+0x195/0x4c0 [ 68.760756] ? kernel_fpu_begin_mask+0x1c0/0x1c0 [ 68.760756] __x64_sys_sendto+0xd8/0x1b0 [ 68.760756] ? lockdep_hardirqs_on+0xbf/0x130 [ 68.760756] ? syscall_enter_from_user_mode+0x1d/0x50 [ 68.760756] do_syscall_64+0x3b/0x90 [ 68.760756] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae [ 68.760756] RIP: 0033:0x7f67fb50e6b3 ... [ 68.760756] RSP: 002b:00007f67fa91fe90 EFLAGS: 00000293 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002c [ 68.760756] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 00007f67fb50e6b3 [ 68.760756] RDX: 000000000000001c RSI: 0000559354603090 RDI: 0000000000000003 [ 68.760756] RBP: 00007f67fa91ff00 R08: 00007f67fa91fedc R09: 000000000000000c [ 68.760756] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000293 R12: 00007ffe824d496e [ 68.760756] R13: 00007ffe824d496f R14: 00007f67fa120000 R15: 0000000000000003 [ 68.760756] </TASK> [ 68.760756] [ 68.760756] Allocated by task 279: [ 68.760756] kasan_save_stack+0x1e/0x40 [ ---truncated---
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Local low-priv UAF in kernel NFC netlink path directly enables memory corruption for privilege escalation (or DoS).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly mitigates the use-after-free by requiring timely patching of the Linux kernel NFC flaw via upstream fixes that NULL the dev->rfkill pointer.
Prevents exposure to the NFC subsystem vulnerability by configuring systems to disable unnecessary kernel modules like NFC when not required.
Provides runtime kernel memory protections such as KASLR and SMAP that hinder exploitation of the use-after-free dereference in nfc_dev_up.