CVE-2022-49546: x86/kexec: fix memory leak of elf header buffer
Vulnerability summary
CVE-2022-49546 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.28% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 20.2% of scored vulnerabilities.
Not severe (CVSS 5.5, local access); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources
Source freshness unavailable
How is this decided?Advisory lineage
Upstream 0 · Downstream 9 · Related 8Timeline
- 26-02-2025PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
- 11-05-2026Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: x86/kexec: fix memory leak of elf header buffer This is reported by kmemleak detector: unreferenced object 0xffffc900002a9000 (size 4096): comm "kexec", pid 14950, jiffies 4295110793 (age 373.951s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .ELF............ 04 00 3e 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ..>............. backtrace: [<0000000016a8ef9f>] __vmalloc_node_range+0x101/0x170 [<000000002b66b6c0>] __vmalloc_node+0xb4/0x160 [<00000000ad40107d>] crash_prepare_elf64_headers+0x8e/0xcd0 [<0000000019afff23>] crash_load_segments+0x260/0x470 [<0000000019ebe95c>] bzImage64_load+0x814/0xad0 [<0000000093e16b05>] arch_kexec_kernel_image_load+0x1be/0x2a0 [<000000009ef2fc88>] kimage_file_alloc_init+0x2ec/0x5a0 [<0000000038f5a97a>] __do_sys_kexec_file_load+0x28d/0x530 [<0000000087c19992>] do_syscall_64+0x3b/0x90 [<0000000066e063a4>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae In crash_prepare_elf64_headers(), a buffer is allocated via vmalloc() to store elf headers. While it's not freed back to system correctly when kdump kernel is reloaded or unloaded. Then memory leak is caused. Fix it by introducing x86 specific function arch_kimage_file_post_load_cleanup(), and freeing the buffer there. And also remove the incorrect elf header buffer freeing code. Before calling arch specific kexec_file loading function, the image instance has been initialized. So 'image->elf_headers' must be NULL. It doesn't make sense to free the elf header buffer in the place. Three different people have reported three bugs about the memory leak on x86_64 inside Redhat.
CVSS metrics
3 scores · 3 sources · 1 version- OSV · UbuntuEcosystem advisory · calculated5.5MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- OSV · DebianEcosystem advisory · calculated5.5MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS trend
Probability
0.28%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days
Percentile
20%
Versus all other CVEs
30-day change
No change 0.00 pp
From 0.28% on 04-10-2026
Known exploited
Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEVNot in the CISA KEV catalog.
ENISA CNWNot in the ENISA CNW catalog.
CIRCLNot in the CIRCL catalog.
Public exploits
0 foundNo public exploits indexed.
Weaknesses
CWE · root causeAffected systems
Known conditions: local access, low-privilege account, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.
Ubuntu113 products
- linuxAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 5.15.0-47.51
- linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-awsAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 5.15.0-1019.23
- linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
Linux2 products
- linux≥ dd5f726076cc7639d9713b334c8c133f77c6757a, < 23cf39dccf7653650701a6f39b119e9116a27f1a | ≥ dd5f726076cc7639d9713b334c8c133f77c6757a, < 8765a423a87d74ef24ea02b43b2728fe4039f248 | ≥ dd5f726076cc7639d9713b334c8c133f77c6757a, < 115ee42a4c2f26ba2b4ace2668a3f004621f6833 | ≥ dd5f726076cc7639d9713b334c8c133f77c6757a, < f675e3a9189d84a9324ab45b0cb19906c2bc8fcb | ≥ dd5f726076cc7639d9713b334c8c133f77c6757a, < b3e34a47f98974d0844444c5121aaff123004e57 | 3.17
- linux_kernel< 5.15.46 | ≥ 5.16, < 5.17.14 | ≥ 5.18, < 5.18.3
Debian1 product
- linux< 5.18.5-1
3 vendors · 116 products
