CVE Catalog

CVE-2022-48801

HighCVSS 7.8
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.28%

21th percentile - higher than 21% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the IIO subsystem in the Linux kernel, an error handling issue was found in IIO_BUFFER_GET_FD_IOCTL. If copying the file descriptor to userland fails, the cleanup code incorrectly uses put_unused_fd(), which is wrong because the fd was already published by fd_install(). This leaves a partially cleaned up file descriptor table and a partially destructed 'file' object, allowing use-after-free tricks on 'file->private_data'.

Risk Assessment

The vulnerability could allow an attacker to exploit use-after-free, potentially leading to privilege escalation, system crash, or other severe consequences.

Recommendation

It is recommended to update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix for CVE-2022-48801. Also avoid invoking this ioctl in environments where copy errors may occur.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

See all
Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iio: buffer: Fix file related error handling in IIO_BUFFER_GET_FD_IOCTL If we fail to copy the just created file descriptor to userland, we try to clean up by putting back 'fd' and freeing 'ib'. The code uses put_unused_fd() for the former which is wrong, as the file descriptor was already published by fd_install() which gets called internally by anon_inode_getfd(). This makes the error handling code leaving a half cleaned up file descriptor table around and a partially destructed 'file' object, allowing userland to play use-after-free tricks on us, by abusing the still usable fd and making the code operate on a dangling 'file->private_data' pointer. Instead of leaving the kernel in a partially corrupted state, don't attempt to explicitly clean up and leave this to the process exit path that'll release any still valid fds, including the one created by the previous call to anon_inode_getfd(). Simply return -EFAULT to indicate the error.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS