# CVE-2022-48760: USB: core: Fix hang in usb_kill_urb by adding memory barriers

> A race condition in the Linux kernel USB core can cause processes to hang indefinitely, resulting in a denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 20 Jun 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-48760, GHSA-3wjp-7h53-cfv8, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-48760

## What is CVE-2022-48760?

CVE-2022-48760 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 20 Jun 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

USB: core: Fix hang in usb_kill_urb by adding memory barriers

The syzbot fuzzer has identified a bug in which processes hang waiting
for usb_kill_urb() to return.  It turns out the issue is not unlinking
the URB; that works just fine.  Rather, the problem arises when the
wakeup notification that the URB has completed is not received.

The reason is memory-access ordering on SMP systems.  In outline form,
usb_kill_urb() and __usb_hcd_giveback_urb() operating concurrently on
different CPUs perform the following actions:

CPU 0					CPU 1
----------------------------		---------------------------------
usb_kill_urb():				__usb_hcd_giveback_urb():
  ...					  ...
  atomic_inc(&urb->reject);		  atomic_dec(&urb->use_count);
  ...					  ...
  wait_event(usb_kill_urb_queue,
	atomic_read(&urb->use_count) == 0);
					  if (atomic_read(&urb->reject))
						wake_up(&usb_kill_urb_queue);

Confining your attention to urb->reject and urb->use_count, you can
see that the overall pattern of accesses on CPU 0 is:

	write urb->reject, then read urb->use_count;

whereas the overall pattern of accesses on CPU 1 is:

	write urb->use_count, then read urb->reject.

This pattern is referred to in memory-model circles as SB (for "Store
Buffering"), and it is well known that without suitable enforcement of
the desired order of accesses -- in the form of memory barriers -- it
is entirely possible for one or both CPUs to execute their reads ahead
of their writes.  The end result will be that sometimes CPU 0 sees the
old un-decremented value of urb->use_count while CPU 1 sees the old
un-incremented value of urb->reject.  Consequently CPU 0 ends up on
the wait queue and never gets woken up, leading to the observed hang
in usb_kill_urb().

The same pattern of accesses occurs in usb_poison_urb() and the
failure pathway of usb_hcd_submit_urb().

The problem is fixed by adding suitable memory barriers.  To provide
proper memory-access ordering in the SB pattern, a full barrier is
required on both CPUs.  The atomic_inc() and atomic_dec() accesses
themselves don't provide any memory ordering, but since they are
present, we can use the optimized smp_mb__after_atomic() memory
barrier in the various routines to obtain the desired effect.

This patch adds the necessary memory barriers.

Weakness: CWE-667 (Improper Locking)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-48760?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-48760?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-48760 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-48760 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-48760 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-48760 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 20 Jun 2024. 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-2022-48760 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. 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-2022-48760/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-48760/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-48760
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-48760
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-48760

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-48760/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.