CVE-2022-48784 cfg80211: fix race in netlink owner interface destruction

What is CVE-2022-48784?

CVE-2022-48784 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 16 Jul 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:

cfg80211: fix race in netlink owner interface destruction

My previous fix here to fix the deadlock left a race where the exact same deadlock (see the original commit referenced below) can still happen if cfg80211_destroy_ifaces() already runs while nl80211_netlink_notify() is still marking some interfaces as nl_owner_dead.

The race happens because we have two loops here - first we dev_close() all the netdevs, and then we destroy them. If we also have two netdevs (first one need only be a wdev though) then we can find one during the first iteration, close it, and go to the second iteration -- but then find two, and try to destroy also the one we didn't close yet.

Fix this by only iterating once.

Weakness: CWE-362

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-48784?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2022-48784?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2022-48784 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-48784 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-48784, GHSA-5rjr-qvpw-gg98, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-48784.