Local denial of service via sockmap memory leak
Published Feb 26, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026
Memory leak in Linux kernel 4.20 through 5.17.1 allows local users to exhaust memory by filling a BPF sockmap send buffer. When sk_msg_alloc() partially grows the scatter-gather list and returns -ENOMEM, it enters the wait-for-memory path without trimming the newly allocated memory. A low-privileged local user who can drive repeated BPF sockmap send attempts under memory pressure can cause availability loss and kernel warnings.
Summary
What happened
Memory leak in Linux kernel 4.20 through 5.17.1 allows local users to exhaust memory by filling a BPF sockmap send buffer. When sk_msg_alloc() partially grows the scatter-gather list and returns -ENOMEM, it enters the wait-for-memory path without trimming the newly allocated memory. A low-privileged local user who can drive repeated BPF sockmap send attempts under memory pressure can cause availability loss and kernel warnings.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-49209
- Published
- Feb 26, 2025
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-401, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Feb 26, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 11, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=4.20
- Affected versionversion=604326b41a6fb9b4a78b6179335decee0365cd8c <6d03722c34d9603df325f67c6d30dc1b7b3c6067
- Affected versionversion=604326b41a6fb9b4a78b6179335decee0365cd8c <9c34e38c4a870eb30b13f42f5b44f42e9d19ccb8
- Affected versionversion=604326b41a6fb9b4a78b6179335decee0365cd8c <bec34a91eba3483e1830c02bdd36f8f968642047
- Affected versionversion=604326b41a6fb9b4a78b6179335decee0365cd8c <d0b85dfc6f01d26808e2576c6537c131b590e270
- Affected versionversion=604326b41a6fb9b4a78b6179335decee0365cd8c <de3a8d8fab0710186f7864ec812836d8d70da3c9
- Affected versionversion=604326b41a6fb9b4a78b6179335decee0365cd8c <f677328f05f52d535cbdc15cb04476db49477eb4
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Technologies
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Your stack
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