CVE-2022-48904

Host memory exhaustion via IOMMU page-table leak

Published Aug 22, 2024 · Updated May 11, 2026

Memory leak in the AMD IOMMU code in Linux 5.12 through 5.17-rc6 allows local users to consume host memory by launching passthrough-device VMs. The mode update in drivers/iommu/amd/io_pgtable.c occurs before memory owned by the prior page-table mode is freed, losing the old allocation. Reachability requires an AMD IOMMU host and VM launches with passthrough devices; repeated launches accumulate unreclaimed host memory.

CVSS severity5.5
Medium
EPSS probability0.21%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Memory leak in the AMD IOMMU code in Linux 5.12 through 5.17-rc6 allows local users to consume host memory by launching passthrough-device VMs. The mode update in drivers/iommu/amd/io_pgtable.c occurs before memory owned by the prior page-table mode is freed, losing the old allocation. Reachability requires an AMD IOMMU host and VM launches with passthrough devices; repeated launches accumulate unreclaimed host memory.

The record

CVE
CVE-2022-48904
Published
Aug 22, 2024
Updated
May 11, 2026
Vendor
The Linux Kernel Organization
Product
Linux
Classifications
CWE-401, T1499
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Aug 22, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. May 11, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.

Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=5.12
  2. Affected versionversion=e42ba0633064ef23eb1c8c21edf96bac1541bd4b <378e2fe1eb58d5c2ed55c8fe5e11f9db5033cdd6
  3. Affected versionversion=e42ba0633064ef23eb1c8c21edf96bac1541bd4b <6b0b2d9a6a308bcd9300c2d83000a82812c56cea
  4. Affected versionversion=e42ba0633064ef23eb1c8c21edf96bac1541bd4b <c78627f757e37c2cf386b59c700c4e1574988597

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

The Linux Kernel Organization · Linuxversion=5.12; version=e42ba0633064ef23eb1c8c21edf96bac1541bd4b <378e2fe1eb58d5c2ed55c8fe5e11f9db5033cdd6; version=e42ba0633064ef23eb1c8c21edf96bac1541bd4b <6b0b2d9a6a308bcd9300c2d83000a82812c56cea; version=e42ba0633064ef23eb1c8c21edf96bac1541bd4b <c78627f757e37c2cf386b59c700c4e1574988597

Published CVSS scores

3.3SUSECVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
5.5NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-401Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
T1499Endpoint Denial of Service

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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