Vulnerability · Published Jun 18, 2025 · Assigned by Linux
CVE-2022-49955powerpc/rtas: Fix RTAS MSR[HV] handling for Cell
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 0.2% (higher than 11% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc/rtas: Fix RTAS MSR[HV] handling for Cell The semi-recent changes to MSR handling when entering RTAS (firmware) cause crashes on IBM Cell machines. An example trace: kernel tried to execute user page (2fff01a8) - exploit attempt? (uid: 0) BUG: Unable to handle kernel instruction fetch Faulting instruction address: 0x2fff01a8 Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1] BE PAGE_SIZE=64K MMU=Hash SMP NR_CPUS=4 NUMA Cell Modules linked in: CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G W 6.0.0-rc2-00433-gede0a8d3307a #207 NIP: 000000002fff01a8 LR: 0000000000032608 CTR: 0000000000000000 REGS: c0000000015236b0 TRAP: 0400 Tainted: G W (6.0.0-rc2-00433-gede0a8d3307a) MSR: 0000000008001002 <ME,RI> CR: 00000000 XER: 20000000 ... NIP 0x2fff01a8 LR 0x32608 Call Trace: 0xc00000000143c5f8 (unreliable) .rtas_call+0x224/0x320 .rtas_get_boot_time+0x70/0x150 .read_persistent_clock64+0x114/0x140 .read_persistent_wall_and_boot_offset+0x24/0x80 .timekeeping_init+0x40/0x29c .start_kernel+0x674/0x8f0 start_here_common+0x1c/0x50 Unlike PAPR platforms where RTAS is only used in guests, on the IBM Cell machines Linux runs with MSR[HV] set but also uses RTAS, provided by SLOF. Fix it by copying the MSR[HV] bit from the MSR value we've just read using mfmsr into the value used for RTAS. It seems like we could also fix it using an #ifdef CELL to set MSR[HV], but that doesn't work because it's possible to build a single kernel image that runs on both Cell native and pseries.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | linux | 6.0.2-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Debian:13 | linux | 6.0.2-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Debian:14 | linux | 6.0.2-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-allwinner-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-aws | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-aws-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-aws-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-aws-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-fde | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-fde-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-fde-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-gcp | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-gcp-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-gcp-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-gcp-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-gke | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-gkeop | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-hwe-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-hwe-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-hwe-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-ibm | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-intel-iot-realtime | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-intel-iotg | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-kvm | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-lowlatency | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-nvidia | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-nvidia-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-nvidia-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-nvidia-tegra | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-nvidia-tegra-igx | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oem-5.17 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oem-6.0 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oem-6.1 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oem-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oracle | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oracle-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-raspi | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-raspi-realtime | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-realtime | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-realtime | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-riscv | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-riscv | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-riscv-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-riscv-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-starfive-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-starfive-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-starfive-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-xilinx-zynqmp | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49955 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | b6b1c3ce06ca438eb24e0f45bf0e63ecad0369f5 – before 8b08d4f97233d8e58fff2fd9d5f86397a49733c5b6b1c3ce06ca438eb24e0f45bf0e63ecad0369f5 – before 91926d8b7e71aaf5f84f0cf208fc5a8b7a7610505ca40fcf0da0ce2b5bc44e7d8b036535955f2e3d5f4367448f6817c8a0e94dc9736ed84fa8eee4a3c9c41f0273826a13ac93124e66a4ff45df281ba05.15.46 – before 5.165.17.14 – before 5.185.18.3 – before 5.19 |
| Linux | Linux | 5.19 |