CVE-2022-48969

Guest kernel crash via stale NAPI polling

Published Oct 21, 2024 · Updated May 11, 2026

NULL pointer dereference in Linux xen-netfront allows local users to crash a guest kernel during live migration with busy polling enabled. The driver destroys the source shared rings before disabling their NAPI pollers, so xennet_poll can dereference a ring after its pointer becomes NULL. Triggering the crash requires Xen frontend networking, busy_poll or busy_read, a concurrent live migration, and local access able to poll the socket.

CVSS severity5.5
Medium
EPSS probability0.26%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
Coverage for this vulnerability

See if you're affected

Explore vulnerability checks for your environment with Hinoki.

Book a demo

Summary

What happened

NULL pointer dereference in Linux xen-netfront allows local users to crash a guest kernel during live migration with busy polling enabled. The driver destroys the source shared rings before disabling their NAPI pollers, so xennet_poll can dereference a ring after its pointer becomes NULL. Triggering the crash requires Xen frontend networking, busy_poll or busy_read, a concurrent live migration, and local access able to poll the socket.

The record

CVE
CVE-2022-48969
Published
Oct 21, 2024
Updated
May 11, 2026
Vendor
The Linux Kernel Organization
Product
Linux
Classifications
CWE-476, T1499.004
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Oct 21, 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=2.6.24
  2. Affected versionversion=4ec2411980d0fd2995e8dea8a06fe57aa47523cb <99859947517e446058ad7243ee81d2f9801fa3dd
  3. Affected versionversion=4ec2411980d0fd2995e8dea8a06fe57aa47523cb <d50b7914fae04d840ce36491d22133070b18cca9
  4. Affected versionversion=4ec2411980d0fd2995e8dea8a06fe57aa47523cb <e6860c889f4ad50b6ab696f5ea154295d72cf27a
  5. Affected versionversion=4ec2411980d0fd2995e8dea8a06fe57aa47523cb <e6e897d4fe2f89c0bd94600a40bedf5e6e75e050
  6. Affected versionversion=4ec2411980d0fd2995e8dea8a06fe57aa47523cb <ed773dd798bf720756d20021b8d8a4a3d7184bda
  7. Affected versionversion=4ec2411980d0fd2995e8dea8a06fe57aa47523cb <f2dd60fd3fe98bd36a91b0c6e10bfe9d66258f84

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

The Linux Kernel Organization · Linuxversion=2.6.24; version=4ec2411980d0fd2995e8dea8a06fe57aa47523cb <99859947517e446058ad7243ee81d2f9801fa3dd; version=4ec2411980d0fd2995e8dea8a06fe57aa47523cb <d50b7914fae04d840ce36491d22133070b18cca9; version=4ec2411980d0fd2995e8dea8a06fe57aa47523cb <e6860c889f4ad50b6ab696f5ea154295d72cf27a; version=4ec2411980d0fd2995e8dea8a06fe57aa47523cb <e6e897d4fe2f89c0bd94600a40bedf5e6e75e050; version=4ec2411980d0fd2995e8dea8a06fe57aa47523cb <ed773dd798bf720756d20021b8d8a4a3d7184bda; version=4ec2411980d0fd2995e8dea8a06fe57aa47523cb <f2dd60fd3fe98bd36a91b0c6e10bfe9d66258f84

Published CVSS scores

5.5Canonical UbuntuCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
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 9, 2026Sep 15, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 15, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-476NULL Pointer Dereference
T1499.004Application or System Exploitation

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

See the directory against your own environment.

Your stack

Check the software in your environment

Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.

Book a demo