# CVE-2022-49326: rtl818x: Prevent using not initialized queues

> A missing initialization check in the rtl818x wireless driver causes a kernel panic when handling specific packet priorities, leading to denial of service.

- **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-2022-49326, GHSA-3v9q-m8x4-6crj, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49326

## What is CVE-2022-49326?

CVE-2022-49326 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:

rtl818x: Prevent using not initialized queues

Using not existing queues can panic the kernel with rtl8180/rtl8185 cards.
Ignore the skb priority for those cards, they only have one tx queue. Pierre
Asselin (pa@panix.com) reported the kernel crash in the Gentoo forum:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1147832-postdays-0-postorder-asc-start-25.html

He also confirmed that this patch fixes the issue. In summary this happened:

After updating wpa_supplicant from 2.9 to 2.10 the kernel crashed with a
"divide error: 0000" when connecting to an AP. Control port tx now tries to
use IEEE80211_AC_VO for the priority, which wpa_supplicants starts to use in
2.10.

Since only the rtl8187se part of the driver supports QoS, the priority
of the skb is set to IEEE80211_AC_BE (2) by mac80211 for rtl8180/rtl8185
cards.

rtl8180 is then unconditionally reading out the priority and finally crashes on
drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtl818x/rtl8180/dev.c line 544 without this
patch:
	idx = (ring->idx + skb_queue_len(&ring->queue)) % ring->entries

"ring->entries" is zero for rtl8180/rtl8185 cards, tx_ring[2] never got
initialized.

Weakness: CWE-908 (Use of Uninitialized Resource)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49326?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-49326?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-49326 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49326 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-2022-49326 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-49326 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-2022-49326 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-2022-49326/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49326/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-49326
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-49326
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-49326

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49326/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.