Vulnerability · Published Feb 26, 2025 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2022-49086net: openvswitch: fix leak of nested actions

Medium 5.5

In plain English

A medium-severity security flaw in Linux from Linux. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.3% (higher than 19% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS NVD)5.5Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.3%top 81.0% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsnot in CISA KEV
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: openvswitch: fix leak of nested actions While parsing user-provided actions, openvswitch module may dynamically allocate memory and store pointers in the internal copy of the actions. So this memory has to be freed while destroying the actions. Currently there are only two such actions: ct() and set(). However, there are many actions that can hold nested lists of actions and ovs_nla_free_flow_actions() just jumps over them leaking the memory. For example, removal of the flow with the following actions will lead to a leak of the memory allocated by nf_ct_tmpl_alloc(): actions:clone(ct(commit),0) Non-freed set() action may also leak the 'dst' structure for the tunnel info including device references. Under certain conditions with a high rate of flow rotation that may cause significant memory leak problem (2MB per second in reporter's case). The problem is also hard to mitigate, because the user doesn't have direct control over the datapath flows generated by OVS. Fix that by iterating over all the nested actions and freeing everything that needs to be freed recursively. New build time assertion should protect us from this problem if new actions will be added in the future. Unfortunately, openvswitch module doesn't use NLA_F_NESTED, so all attributes has to be explicitly checked. sample() and clone() actions are mixing extra attributes into the user-provided action list. That prevents some code generalization too.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12linux5.17.3-1DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49086
Debian:13linux5.17.3-1DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49086
Debian:14linux5.17.3-1DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux5.15.0-37.39UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws5.15.0-1011.14UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure5.15.0-1010.12UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp5.15.0-1008.12UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gke5.15.0-1008.10UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-ibm5.15.0-1007.8UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iotg5.15.0-1008.11UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-kvm5.15.0-1010.11UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency5.15.0-37.39UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle5.15.0-1009.12UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-raspi5.15.0-1011.13UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2022-49086

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux 34ae932a40369be6bd6ea97d66b6686361b4370d – before 7438dc55c0709819b813f4778aec2c48b782990b34ae932a40369be6bd6ea97d66b6686361b4370d – before ef6f9ce0a79aa23b10fc5f3b3cab3814a25aac4034ae932a40369be6bd6ea97d66b6686361b4370d – before 5ae05b5eb58773cfec307ff88aff4cfd843c4cff34ae932a40369be6bd6ea97d66b6686361b4370d – before 837b96d8103938e35e7d92cd9db96af914ca4fff34ae932a40369be6bd6ea97d66b6686361b4370d – before 3554c214b83ec9a839ed574263a34218f372990c34ae932a40369be6bd6ea97d66b6686361b4370d – before 53bce9d19b0a9d245b25cd050b81652ed974a50934ae932a40369be6bd6ea97d66b6686361b4370d – before 1f30fb9166d4f15a1aa19449b9da871fe0ed4796
Linux Linux 4.3

References