Local service interruption via incomplete page-table freeing
Published Feb 26, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026
Memory leak in the Linux kernel allows local users to exhaust system memory by repeatedly creating short-lived processes. On affected 64-bit MIPS configurations, PGD_ORDER is 1, so a page global directory spans two pages while generic pgd_free() releases only one. Repeated process creation therefore leaks a page per teardown and can deplete memory until service is interrupted; the exposed configuration uses 4 KB pages without 48-bit virtual addressing.
Summary
What happened
Memory leak in the Linux kernel allows local users to exhaust system memory by repeatedly creating short-lived processes. On affected 64-bit MIPS configurations, PGD_ORDER is 1, so a page global directory spans two pages while generic pgd_free() releases only one. Repeated process creation therefore leaks a page per teardown and can deplete memory until service is interrupted; the exposed configuration uses 4 KB pages without 48-bit virtual addressing.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-49210
- 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?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=5.9
- Affected versionversion=f9cb654cb550b7b87e8608b14fc3eca432429ffe <1bf0d78c8cc3cf615a6e7bf33ada70b73592f0a1
- Affected versionversion=f9cb654cb550b7b87e8608b14fc3eca432429ffe <2bc5bab9a763d520937e4f3fe8df51c6a1eceb97
- Affected versionversion=f9cb654cb550b7b87e8608b14fc3eca432429ffe <5a8501d34b261906e4c76ec9da679f2cb4d309ed
- Affected versionversion=f9cb654cb550b7b87e8608b14fc3eca432429ffe <d29cda15cab086d82d692de016f7249545d4b6b4
- Affected versionversion=f9cb654cb550b7b87e8608b14fc3eca432429ffe <fa3d44424579972cc7c4fac3d9cf227798ebdfa0
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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