Local kernel crash via unchecked allocation failure
Published Feb 26, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026
NULL pointer dereference in the TI CAL media driver in Linux allows local users to crash the system under memory pressure. The cal_ctx_v4l2_init_formats() function stores devm_kzalloc() in ctx->active_fmt and dereferences it without checking for allocation failure. Reachability requires low-privilege local access and an allocation failure during TI CAL context initialization; the resulting kernel crash interrupts the host.
Summary
What happened
NULL pointer dereference in the TI CAL media driver in Linux allows local users to crash the system under memory pressure. The cal_ctx_v4l2_init_formats() function stores devm_kzalloc() in ctx->active_fmt and dereferences it without checking for allocation failure. Reachability requires low-privilege local access and an allocation failure during TI CAL context initialization; the resulting kernel crash interrupts the host.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-49254
- Published
- Feb 26, 2025
- 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
- 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=5.12
- Affected versionversion=7168155002cf7aadbfaa14a28f037c880a214764 <1381f1a629a090c251965edb56f849ad648414a4
- Affected versionversion=7168155002cf7aadbfaa14a28f037c880a214764 <91e2805579ab0783eed53acc2bf9fb553e939004
- Affected versionversion=7168155002cf7aadbfaa14a28f037c880a214764 <aa613ac270292e102503e9767882e39200efe608
- Affected versionversion=7168155002cf7aadbfaa14a28f037c880a214764 <abd77889851d2ead0d0c9c4d29f1808801477b00
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What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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