Kernel crash via stale piix4 adapter callback
Published May 1, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026
Use-after-free in the Linux kernel piix4 I2C driver allows local users to crash the kernel after the affected adapter is removed. piix4_add_adapter() leaves piix4_adapter_count at zero, so piix4_remove() skips unregistering the single adapter and later I2C registration calls its freed smbus_algorithm callback. Reaching the demonstrated kernel oops requires privileged module removal and a PIIX4 single-adapter configuration; the documented consequence is a kernel crash.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in the Linux kernel piix4 I2C driver allows local users to crash the kernel after the affected adapter is removed. piix4_add_adapter() leaves piix4_adapter_count at zero, so piix4_remove() skips unregistering the single adapter and later I2C registration calls its freed smbus_algorithm callback. Reaching the demonstrated kernel oops requires privileged module removal and a PIIX4 single-adapter configuration; the documented consequence is a kernel crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-49900
- Published
- May 1, 2025
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-415
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- admin
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 1, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 11, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
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- Affected versionversion=528d53a1592b0e27c423f7cafc1df85f77fc1163 <569bea74c94d37785682b11bab76f557520477cd
- Affected versionversion=528d53a1592b0e27c423f7cafc1df85f77fc1163 <bfd5e62f9a7ee214661cb6f143a3b40ccc63317f
- Affected versionversion=528d53a1592b0e27c423f7cafc1df85f77fc1163 <d78ccdce662e88f41e87e90cf2bee63c1715d2a5
- Affected versionversion=528d53a1592b0e27c423f7cafc1df85f77fc1163 <fe51636fffc8108c7c4da6aa393010e786530ad9
- Affected versionversion=5.4
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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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