Local memory exhaustion via unreleased string arrays
Published Feb 26, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026
Memory leak in lib/string_helpers.c in Linux 5.17 through 5.17.13 and 5.18 through 5.18.2 allows local users to exhaust memory. The devm_kasprintf_strarray() helper returns an allocated string array without recording its element count or adding its allocation to the device resource list, so device removal cannot release it. Reachability requires local low-privileged access and a driver that calls the helper; repeated allocations can exhaust memory and interrupt service.
Summary
What happened
Memory leak in lib/string_helpers.c in Linux 5.17 through 5.17.13 and 5.18 through 5.18.2 allows local users to exhaust memory. The devm_kasprintf_strarray() helper returns an allocated string array without recording its element count or adding its allocation to the device resource list, so device removal cannot release it. Reachability requires local low-privileged access and a driver that calls the helper; repeated allocations can exhaust memory and interrupt service.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-49403
- Published
- Feb 26, 2025
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-401, T1499
- 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
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.
- Affected versionversion=5.17
- Affected versionversion=acdb89b6c87a2d7b5c48a82756e6f5c6f599f60a <a152eb42fcecfe41239c3c6695342f3a128593e7
- Affected versionversion=acdb89b6c87a2d7b5c48a82756e6f5c6f599f60a <bf29edab0c9ff3d2633b8306a67d04c357e2a385
- Affected versionversion=acdb89b6c87a2d7b5c48a82756e6f5c6f599f60a <cd290a9839cee2f6641558877e707bd373c8f6f1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
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