# CVE-2022-49070: fbdev: Fix unregistering of framebuffers without device

> A NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel fbdev subsystem allows local attackers to cause a system crash.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/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:** 26 Feb 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49070, GHSA-758p-v7g2-6f96, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49070

## What is CVE-2022-49070?

CVE-2022-49070 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 26 Feb 2025. 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:

fbdev: Fix unregistering of framebuffers without device

OF framebuffers do not have an underlying device in the Linux
device hierarchy. Do a regular unregister call instead of hot
unplugging such a non-existing device. Fixes a NULL dereference.
An example error message on ppc64le is shown below.

  BUG: Kernel NULL pointer dereference on read at 0x00000060
  Faulting instruction address: 0xc00000000080dfa4
  Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1]
  LE PAGE_SIZE=64K MMU=Hash SMP NR_CPUS=2048 NUMA pSeries
  [...]
  CPU: 2 PID: 139 Comm: systemd-udevd Not tainted 5.17.0-ae085d7f9365 #1
  NIP:  c00000000080dfa4 LR: c00000000080df9c CTR: c000000000797430
  REGS: c000000004132fe0 TRAP: 0300   Not tainted  (5.17.0-ae085d7f9365)
  MSR:  8000000002009033 <SF,VEC,EE,ME,IR,DR,RI,LE>  CR: 28228282  XER: 20000000
  CFAR: c00000000000c80c DAR: 0000000000000060 DSISR: 40000000 IRQMASK: 0
  GPR00: c00000000080df9c c000000004133280 c00000000169d200 0000000000000029
  GPR04: 00000000ffffefff c000000004132f90 c000000004132f88 0000000000000000
  GPR08: c0000000015658f8 c0000000015cd200 c0000000014f57d0 0000000048228283
  GPR12: 0000000000000000 c00000003fffe300 0000000020000000 0000000000000000
  GPR16: 0000000000000000 0000000113fc4a40 0000000000000005 0000000113fcfb80
  GPR20: 000001000f7283b0 0000000000000000 c000000000e4a588 c000000000e4a5b0
  GPR24: 0000000000000001 00000000000a0000 c008000000db0168 c0000000021f6ec0
  GPR28: c0000000016d65a8 c000000004b36460 0000000000000000 c0000000016d64b0
  NIP [c00000000080dfa4] do_remove_conflicting_framebuffers+0x184/0x1d0
  [c000000004133280] [c00000000080df9c] do_remove_conflicting_framebuffers+0x17c/0x1d0 (unreliable)
  [c000000004133350] [c00000000080e4d0] remove_conflicting_framebuffers+0x60/0x150
  [c0000000041333a0] [c00000000080e6f4] remove_conflicting_pci_framebuffers+0x134/0x1b0
  [c000000004133450] [c008000000e70438] drm_aperture_remove_conflicting_pci_framebuffers+0x90/0x100 [drm]
  [c000000004133490] [c008000000da0ce4] bochs_pci_probe+0x6c/0xa64 [bochs]
  [...]
  [c000000004133db0] [c00000000002aaa0] system_call_exception+0x170/0x2d0
  [c000000004133e10] [c00000000000c3cc] system_call_common+0xec/0x250

The bug [1] was introduced by commit 27599aacbaef ("fbdev: Hot-unplug
firmware fb devices on forced removal"). Most firmware framebuffers
have an underlying platform device, which can be hot-unplugged
before loading the native graphics driver. OF framebuffers do not
(yet) have that device. Fix the code by unregistering the framebuffer
as before without a hot unplug.

Tested with 5.17 on qemu ppc64le emulation.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49070?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-49070?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-49070 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49070 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-2022-49070 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-49070 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 26 Feb 2025. 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-2022-49070 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-2022-49070/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49070/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-49070
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-49070
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-49070

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49070/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
