# CVE-2022-23035: Use after free in xen

> A use-after-free vulnerability in Xen's IRQ cleanup allows attackers to potentially execute code or escalate privileges.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.6 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 25 Jan 2022
- **Updated:** 3 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2022-23035, DEBIAN-CVE-2022-23035, GHSA-5x5q-fcw5-7frv, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-23035

## What is CVE-2022-23035?

CVE-2022-23035 is a medium-severity use after free vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 25 Jan 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Insufficient cleanup of passed-through device IRQs The management of IRQs associated with physical devices exposed to x86 HVM guests involves an iterative operation in particular when cleaning up after the guest's use of the device. In the case where an interrupt is not quiescent yet at the time this cleanup gets invoked, the cleanup attempt may be scheduled to be retried. When multiple interrupts are involved, this scheduling of a retry may get erroneously skipped. At the same time pointers may get cleared (resulting in a de-reference of NULL) and freed (resulting in a use-after-free), while other code would continue to assume them to be valid.

Weakness: CWE-459 (Incomplete Cleanup)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-23035?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Fedoraproject Fedora, Xen Xen.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-23035?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-23035 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-23035 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2015-3306](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3306/): ProFTPD Improper Access Control (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-49113](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49113/): RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-24061](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24061/): GNU InetUtils Argument Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-39682](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39682/): Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-9680](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9680/): Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-23035 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-23035 is a medium-severity use after free vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 25 Jan 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-23035 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Debian Debian Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-23035/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-23035/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-23035
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-23035
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-23035

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-23035/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.