CVE-2022-49345 net: xfrm: unexport __init-annotated xfrm4_protocol_init()

What is CVE-2022-49345?

CVE-2022-49345 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:

net: xfrm: unexport __init-annotated xfrm4_protocol_init()

EXPORT_SYMBOL and __init is a bad combination because the .init.text section is freed up after the initialization. Hence, modules cannot use symbols annotated __init. The access to a freed symbol may end up with kernel panic.

modpost used to detect it, but it has been broken for a decade.

Recently, I fixed modpost so it started to warn it again, then this showed up in linux-next builds.

There are two ways to fix it:

- Remove __init - Remove EXPORT_SYMBOL

I chose the latter for this case because the only in-tree call-site, net/ipv4/xfrm4_policy.c is never compiled as modular. (CONFIG_XFRM is boolean)

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49345?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2022-49345?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2022-49345 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49345 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-2022-49345, GHSA-9hmv-44qw-gg32, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49345.