Kernel crash via stale ftrace operations list
Published Jun 18, 2025 · Updated Aug 5, 2026
A NULL-pointer dereference in Linux kernel ftrace allows local users with tracing privileges to crash or panic the host. When ftrace_startup_enable fails, ftrace_startup leaves a dynamically allocated ftrace_ops entry linked while disabled cleanup returns before removing it; is_ftrace_trampoline later walks the stale entry and dereferences an invalid pointer. Reachability requires local low-privileged access to tracefs or perf function tracing and a forced ftrace modification failure; the demonstrated consequence is a kernel oops that can take down the system.
Summary
What happened
A NULL-pointer dereference in Linux kernel ftrace allows local users with tracing privileges to crash or panic the host. When ftrace_startup_enable fails, ftrace_startup leaves a dynamically allocated ftrace_ops entry linked while disabled cleanup returns before removing it; is_ftrace_trampoline later walks the stale entry and dereferences an invalid pointer. Reachability requires local low-privileged access to tracefs or perf function tracing and a forced ftrace modification failure; the demonstrated consequence is a kernel oops that can take down the system.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-49977
- Published
- Jun 18, 2025
- Updated
- Aug 5, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jun 18, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 5, 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=189f4e672fc1c086f78818affc810ef29dda42a3
- Affected versionversion=2940c25bec92f40a3f7f32504b8ea115d1701892
- Affected versionversion=3.10.22 <3.11
- Affected versionversion=3.12.3 <3.13
- Affected versionversion=3.13
- Affected versionversion=3.2.54 <3.3
- Affected versionversion=3.4.72 <3.5
- Affected versionversion=51d351d5b949ae7204696ada7ef502ed34d34fb0
- Affected versionversion=8a56d7761d2d041ae5e8215d20b4167d8aa93f51 <4c34a2a6c9927c239dd2e295a03d49b37b618d2c
- Affected versionversion=8a56d7761d2d041ae5e8215d20b4167d8aa93f51 <8569b4ada1e0b9bfaa125bd0c0967918b6560fa2
- Affected versionversion=8a56d7761d2d041ae5e8215d20b4167d8aa93f51 <934e49f7d696afdae9f979abe3f308408184e17b
- Affected versionversion=8a56d7761d2d041ae5e8215d20b4167d8aa93f51 <c3b0f72e805f0801f05fa2aa52011c4bfc694c44
- Affected versionversion=8a56d7761d2d041ae5e8215d20b4167d8aa93f51 <d81bd6671f45fde4c3ac7fd7733c6e3082ae9d8e
- Affected versionversion=8a56d7761d2d041ae5e8215d20b4167d8aa93f51 <dbd8c8fc60480e3faa3ae7e27ebe03371ecd1b77
- Affected versionversion=8a56d7761d2d041ae5e8215d20b4167d8aa93f51 <ddffe882d74ef43a3494f0ab0c24baf076c45f96
- Affected versionversion=8a56d7761d2d041ae5e8215d20b4167d8aa93f51 <e4ae97295984ff1b9b340ed18ae1b066f36b7835
- Affected versionversion=969a08e9048ddd0d655a19e692673cdb95116ce6
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
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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
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