CVE-2022-49546 Details
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.
A memory leak vulnerability has been identified in the Linux kernel's handling of the kexec system call on x86_64 architectures. When the kdump kernel is reloaded or unloaded, a buffer allocated for ELF headers is not properly freed, leading to a memory leak. This issue was detected by the kmemleak memory leak detector, which reported an unreferenced object corresponding to the leaked buffer. The vulnerability arises because the ELF header buffer is incorrectly managed during the kexec file load process, causing memory to remain allocated and unreferenced.
The vulnerability has been addressed in the official Linux kernel repository. Users should upgrade to the latest version of the Linux kernel where this issue has been fixed.
Metrics
CVSS 4.0 Severity and Vector Strings:
No CVSS 4.0 data is available for this CVE.
CVSS 3.x Severity and Vector Strings:
No data available for CVSS Version 2.0 on this CVE.
No SSVC data is available for this CVE.
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Weakness Enumeration
| CWE-ID | CWE Name | Source |
|---|---|---|
| CWE-401 | Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime | [email protected] |
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
| linux linux kernel | < 5.15.46 >= 5.16, < 5.17.14 >= 5.18, < 5.18.3 |
CPE
Remediation
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Change History
5 change records found show changes
| Date | Action | Recorded By |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 17, 2026 | CVE Modified | kernel.org |
| Nov 3, 2025 | CVE Modified | CVE |
| Apr 10, 2025 | CVE Modified | kernel.org |
| Mar 10, 2025 | Initial Analysis | [email protected] |
| Feb 26, 2025 | New CVE Received | kernel.org |