Service interruption via leaked request-socket references
Published Feb 26, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026
Memory leak in Linux kernel BPF socket lookup helpers from 5.2 allows local users to exhaust kernel memory and interrupt service. A lookup can acquire a child request_socket reference but return its parent LISTEN socket through sk_to_full_sk() without first decrementing the child reference. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access and the ability to run a BPF program that exercises the affected socket-lookup path.
Summary
What happened
Memory leak in Linux kernel BPF socket lookup helpers from 5.2 allows local users to exhaust kernel memory and interrupt service. A lookup can acquire a child request_socket reference but return its parent LISTEN socket through sk_to_full_sk() without first decrementing the child reference. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access and the ability to run a BPF program that exercises the affected socket-lookup path.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-49697
- Published
- Feb 26, 2025
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-401, T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- Unavailable
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=5.2
- Affected versionversion=edbf8c01de5a104a71ed6df2bf6421ceb2836a8e <3046a827316c0e55fc563b4fb78c93b9ca5c7c37
- Affected versionversion=edbf8c01de5a104a71ed6df2bf6421ceb2836a8e <516760f1d2979903eaad5b437256913c5cd98416
- Affected versionversion=edbf8c01de5a104a71ed6df2bf6421ceb2836a8e <5a62b5ba4c0ce8315b6382cd4ace81b48cd121cd
- Affected versionversion=edbf8c01de5a104a71ed6df2bf6421ceb2836a8e <8ffe2e50e9678c8373027492035f094b130437f1
- Affected versionversion=edbf8c01de5a104a71ed6df2bf6421ceb2836a8e <b03607437ea81b850599f705096b05b85e7a4a71
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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