Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2022-49021)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2022-49021). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 4.9.335, 4.14.301, 4.19.268, 5.4.226, 5.10.158, 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: phy: fix null-ptr-deref while probe() failed

I got a null-ptr-deref report as following when doing fault injection test:

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000058
Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN PTI
CPU: 1 PID: 253 Comm: 507-spi-dm9051 Tainted: G B N 6.1.0-rc3+
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.13.0-1ubuntu1.1 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:klist_put+0x2d/0xd0
Call Trace:

klist_remove+0xf1/0x1c0
device_release_driver_internal+0x23e/0x2d0
bus_remove_device+0x1bd/0x240
device_del+0x357/0x770
phy_device_remove+0x11/0x30
mdiobus_unregister+0xa5/0x140
release_nodes+0x6a/0xa0
devres_release_all+0xf8/0x150
device_unbind_cleanup+0x19/0xd0

//probe path:
phy_device_register()
device_add()

phy_connect
phy_attach_direct() //set device driver
probe() //it's failed, driver is not bound
device_bind_driver() // probe failed, it's not called

//remove path:
phy_device_remove()
device_del()
device_release_driver_internal()
__device_release_driver() //dev->drv is not NULL
klist_remove() <- knode_driver is not added yet, cause null-ptr-deref

In phy_attach_direct(), after setting the 'dev->driver', probe() fails,
device_bind_driver() is not called, so the knode_driver->n_klist is not
set, then it causes null-ptr-deref in __device_release_driver() while
deleting device. Fix this by setting dev->driver to NULL in the error…

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-2022-49021 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 4.9.335, 4.14.301, 4.19.268, 5.4.226, 5.10.158, 5.15.82, 6.0.12 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2022-49021" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2022-49021 (Kernel)
Patched: 4.9.335, 4.14.301, 4.19.268, 5.4.226, 5.10.158, 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 4.9.335, 4.14.301, 4.19.268, 5.4.226, 5.10.158, 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 4.9.335, 4.14.301, 4.19.268, 5.4.226, 5.10.158, 5.15.82, 6.0.12
```
ステージング環境で 4.9.335, 4.14.301, 4.19.268, 5.4.226, 5.10.158, 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":"2.6.14"},{"fixed":"4.9.335"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"4.10.0"},{"fixed":"4.14.301"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"4.15.0"},{"fixed":"4.19.268"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"4.20.0"},{"fixed":"5.4.226"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.5.0"},{"fixed":"5.10.158"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.11.0"},{"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-2022-49021 linux Fixed in: 5.10.158-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49021 linux-azure Fixed in: 4.15.0-1162.177~14.04.1