GHSA-QQF8-29GP-9WQX
Vulnerability from github – Published: 2025-03-10 21:31 – Updated: 2025-11-03 21:32In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
x86/kexec: fix memory leak of elf header buffer
This is reported by kmemleak detector:
unreferenced object 0xffffc900002a9000 (size 4096): comm "kexec", pid 14950, jiffies 4295110793 (age 373.951s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .ELF............ 04 00 3e 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ..>............. backtrace: [<0000000016a8ef9f>] __vmalloc_node_range+0x101/0x170 [<000000002b66b6c0>] __vmalloc_node+0xb4/0x160 [<00000000ad40107d>] crash_prepare_elf64_headers+0x8e/0xcd0 [<0000000019afff23>] crash_load_segments+0x260/0x470 [<0000000019ebe95c>] bzImage64_load+0x814/0xad0 [<0000000093e16b05>] arch_kexec_kernel_image_load+0x1be/0x2a0 [<000000009ef2fc88>] kimage_file_alloc_init+0x2ec/0x5a0 [<0000000038f5a97a>] __do_sys_kexec_file_load+0x28d/0x530 [<0000000087c19992>] do_syscall_64+0x3b/0x90 [<0000000066e063a4>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae
In crash_prepare_elf64_headers(), a buffer is allocated via vmalloc() to store elf headers. While it's not freed back to system correctly when kdump kernel is reloaded or unloaded. Then memory leak is caused. Fix it by introducing x86 specific function arch_kimage_file_post_load_cleanup(), and freeing the buffer there.
And also remove the incorrect elf header buffer freeing code. Before calling arch specific kexec_file loading function, the image instance has been initialized. So 'image->elf_headers' must be NULL. It doesn't make sense to free the elf header buffer in the place.
Three different people have reported three bugs about the memory leak on x86_64 inside Redhat.
{
"affected": [],
"aliases": [
"CVE-2022-49546"
],
"database_specific": {
"cwe_ids": [
"CWE-401"
],
"github_reviewed": false,
"github_reviewed_at": null,
"nvd_published_at": "2025-02-26T07:01:30Z",
"severity": "MODERATE"
},
"details": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nx86/kexec: fix memory leak of elf header buffer\n\nThis is reported by kmemleak detector:\n\nunreferenced object 0xffffc900002a9000 (size 4096):\n comm \"kexec\", pid 14950, jiffies 4295110793 (age 373.951s)\n hex dump (first 32 bytes):\n 7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .ELF............\n 04 00 3e 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ..\u003e.............\n backtrace:\n [\u003c0000000016a8ef9f\u003e] __vmalloc_node_range+0x101/0x170\n [\u003c000000002b66b6c0\u003e] __vmalloc_node+0xb4/0x160\n [\u003c00000000ad40107d\u003e] crash_prepare_elf64_headers+0x8e/0xcd0\n [\u003c0000000019afff23\u003e] crash_load_segments+0x260/0x470\n [\u003c0000000019ebe95c\u003e] bzImage64_load+0x814/0xad0\n [\u003c0000000093e16b05\u003e] arch_kexec_kernel_image_load+0x1be/0x2a0\n [\u003c000000009ef2fc88\u003e] kimage_file_alloc_init+0x2ec/0x5a0\n [\u003c0000000038f5a97a\u003e] __do_sys_kexec_file_load+0x28d/0x530\n [\u003c0000000087c19992\u003e] do_syscall_64+0x3b/0x90\n [\u003c0000000066e063a4\u003e] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae\n\nIn crash_prepare_elf64_headers(), a buffer is allocated via vmalloc() to\nstore elf headers. While it\u0027s not freed back to system correctly when\nkdump kernel is reloaded or unloaded. Then memory leak is caused. Fix it\nby introducing x86 specific function arch_kimage_file_post_load_cleanup(),\nand freeing the buffer there.\n\nAnd also remove the incorrect elf header buffer freeing code. Before\ncalling arch specific kexec_file loading function, the image instance has\nbeen initialized. So \u0027image-\u003eelf_headers\u0027 must be NULL. It doesn\u0027t make\nsense to free the elf header buffer in the place.\n\nThree different people have reported three bugs about the memory leak on\nx86_64 inside Redhat.",
"id": "GHSA-qqf8-29gp-9wqx",
"modified": "2025-11-03T21:32:52Z",
"published": "2025-03-10T21:31:09Z",
"references": [
{
"type": "ADVISORY",
"url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-49546"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/115ee42a4c2f26ba2b4ace2668a3f004621f6833"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/23cf39dccf7653650701a6f39b119e9116a27f1a"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8765a423a87d74ef24ea02b43b2728fe4039f248"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b3e34a47f98974d0844444c5121aaff123004e57"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f675e3a9189d84a9324ab45b0cb19906c2bc8fcb"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/05/msg00030.html"
}
],
"schema_version": "1.4.0",
"severity": [
{
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H",
"type": "CVSS_V3"
}
]
}
Sightings
| Author | Source | Type | Date |
|---|
Nomenclature
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