# CVE-2022-49401: mm/page_owner: use strscpy() instead of strlcpy()

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel crash via out-of-bounds read in page_owner when CONFIG_PAGE_OWNER is enabled.

- **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:** 26 Feb 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49401, GHSA-p2v4-3p7m-942v, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2022-49401, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49401

## What is CVE-2022-49401?

CVE-2022-49401 is a high-severity memory corruption 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:

mm/page_owner: use strscpy() instead of strlcpy()

current->comm[] is not a string (no guarantee for a zero byte in it).

strlcpy(s1, s2, l) is calling strlen(s2), potentially
causing out-of-bound access, as reported by syzbot:

detected buffer overflow in __fortify_strlen
------------[ cut here ]------------
kernel BUG at lib/string_helpers.c:980!
invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN
CPU: 0 PID: 4087 Comm: dhcpcd-run-hooks Not tainted 5.18.0-rc3-syzkaller-01537-g20b87e7c29df #0
Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 01/01/2011
RIP: 0010:fortify_panic+0x18/0x1a lib/string_helpers.c:980
Code: 8c e8 c5 ba e1 fa e9 23 0f bf fa e8 0b 5d 8c f8 eb db 55 48 89 fd e8 e0 49 40 f8 48 89 ee 48 c7 c7 80 f5 26 8a e8 99 09 f1 ff <0f> 0b e8 ca 49 40 f8 48 8b 54 24 18 4c 89 f1 48 c7 c7 00 00 27 8a
RSP: 0018:ffffc900000074a8 EFLAGS: 00010286

RAX: 000000000000002c RBX: ffff88801226b728 RCX: 0000000000000000
RDX: ffff8880198e0000 RSI: ffffffff81600458 RDI: fffff52000000e87
RBP: ffffffff89da2aa0 R08: 000000000000002c R09: 0000000000000000
R10: ffffffff815fae2e R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff88801226b700
R13: ffff8880198e0830 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000
FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8880b9c00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 00007f5876ad6ff8 CR3: 000000001a48c000 CR4: 00000000003506f0
DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000600
Call Trace:
 <IRQ>
 __fortify_strlen include/linux/fortify-string.h:128 [inline]
 strlcpy include/linux/fortify-string.h:143 [inline]
 __set_page_owner_handle+0x2b1/0x3e0 mm/page_owner.c:171
 __set_page_owner+0x3e/0x50 mm/page_owner.c:190
 prep_new_page mm/page_alloc.c:2441 [inline]
 get_page_from_freelist+0xba2/0x3e00 mm/page_alloc.c:4182
 __alloc_pages+0x1b2/0x500 mm/page_alloc.c:5408
 alloc_pages+0x1aa/0x310 mm/mempolicy.c:2272
 alloc_slab_page mm/slub.c:1799 [inline]
 allocate_slab+0x26c/0x3c0 mm/slub.c:1944
 new_slab mm/slub.c:2004 [inline]
 ___slab_alloc+0x8df/0xf20 mm/slub.c:3005
 __slab_alloc.constprop.0+0x4d/0xa0 mm/slub.c:3092
 slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:3183 [inline]
 slab_alloc mm/slub.c:3225 [inline]
 __kmem_cache_alloc_lru mm/slub.c:3232 [inline]
 kmem_cache_alloc+0x360/0x3b0 mm/slub.c:3242
 dst_alloc+0x146/0x1f0 net/core/dst.c:92

Weakness: CWE-125 (Out-of-bounds Read)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49401?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-49401?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-49401 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49401 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-2022-49401 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-49401 is a high-severity memory corruption 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-2022-49401 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-2022-49401/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49401/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-49401
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-49401
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-49401

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49401/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.