Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2022-49016)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2022-49016). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 5.15.82, 6.0.12 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

net: mdiobus: fix unbalanced node reference count

I got the following report while doing device(mscc-miim) load test
with CONFIG_OF_UNITTEST and CONFIG_OF_DYNAMIC enabled:

OF: ERROR: memory leak, expected refcount 1 instead of 2,
of_node_get()/of_node_put() unbalanced - destroy cset entry:
attach overlay node /spi/soc@0/mdio@7107009c/ethernet-phy@0

If the 'fwnode' is not an acpi node, the refcount is get in
fwnode_mdiobus_phy_device_register(), but it has never been
put when the device is freed in the normal path. So call
fwnode_handle_put() in phy_device_release() to avoid leak.

If it's an acpi node, it has never been get, but it's put
in the error path, so call fwnode_handle_get() before
phy_device_register() to keep get/put operation balanced.

Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD OSV

Auto-generated summary

Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.

A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2022-49016 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 5.15.82, 6.0.12 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2022-49016" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2022-49016 (Kernel)
Patched: 5.15.82, 6.0.12 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.

❓ What is the problem

A vulnerability (unclassified) exists in Kernel.

📍 Affected scope

Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Kernel.

🔥 Severity

Severity: ?. Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.

🔧 How to fix

Update to 5.15.82, 6.0.12.

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'Kernel' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.

Response actions

Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order

1
Identify exposure identify
```
grep -r 'Kernel' . | grep -v node_modules
```
リポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で Kernel を grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。
2
Apply patch patch
```
Upgrade Kernel to 5.15.82, 6.0.12
```
ステージング環境で 5.15.82, 6.0.12 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
3
Post-deployment verification verify
```
Confirm patched version is live in production
```
パッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。

Affected packages

Linux Kernel

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.14.0"},{"fixed":"5.15.82"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.16.0"},{"fixed":"6.0.12"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49016 linux Fixed in: 6.0.12-1