CVE-2022-36879 Use after free in n/a

Medium 5.5 Published 27 Jul 2022 Updated 14 Oct 2026

A double refcount drop in the Linux kernel's xfrm policy expansion can lead to use-after-free, enabling privilege escalation or denial of service.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Any signed-in user
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2022-36879?

CVE-2022-36879 is a medium-severity use after free vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 27 Jul 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel through 5.18.14. xfrm_expand_policies in net/xfrm/xfrm_policy.c can cause a refcount to be dropped twice.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-36879?

It affects 24 products.

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel, Netapp A700s Firmware, Netapp Active Iq Unified Manager, Netapp Aff 500f Firmware, Netapp Aff 8300 Firmware and 18 more.

How do I fix CVE-2022-36879?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.

Is CVE-2022-36879 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-36879 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Debian Debian Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as AZL-10401, DEBIAN-CVE-2022-36879, GHSA-wwxv-fc92-xrw3, OESA-2022-1842, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-36879.