# CVE-2022-49468: thermal/core: Fix memory leak in __thermal_cooling_device_register()

> A memory leak in the Linux kernel thermal core allows attackers to cause denial of service by triggering device registration failures.

- **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-2022-49468, GHSA-2vp4-6vg4-qh8r, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49468

## What is CVE-2022-49468?

CVE-2022-49468 is a medium-severity denial of service 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:

thermal/core: Fix memory leak in __thermal_cooling_device_register()

I got memory leak as follows when doing fault injection test:

unreferenced object 0xffff888010080000 (size 264312):
  comm "182", pid 102533, jiffies 4296434960 (age 10.100s)
  hex dump (first 32 bytes):
    00 00 00 00 ad 4e ad de ff ff ff ff 00 00 00 00  .....N..........
    ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 40 7f 1f b9 ff ff ff ff  ........@.......
  backtrace:
    [<0000000038b2f4fc>] kmalloc_order_trace+0x1d/0x110 mm/slab_common.c:969
    [<00000000ebcb8da5>] __kmalloc+0x373/0x420 include/linux/slab.h:510
    [<0000000084137f13>] thermal_cooling_device_setup_sysfs+0x15d/0x2d0 include/linux/slab.h:586
    [<00000000352b8755>] __thermal_cooling_device_register+0x332/0xa60 drivers/thermal/thermal_core.c:927
    [<00000000fb9f331b>] devm_thermal_of_cooling_device_register+0x6b/0xf0 drivers/thermal/thermal_core.c:1041
    [<000000009b8012d2>] max6650_probe.cold+0x557/0x6aa drivers/hwmon/max6650.c:211
    [<00000000da0b7e04>] i2c_device_probe+0x472/0xac0 drivers/i2c/i2c-core-base.c:561

If device_register() fails, thermal_cooling_device_destroy_sysfs() need be called
to free the memory allocated in thermal_cooling_device_setup_sysfs().

Weakness: CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49468?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-49468?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-49468 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49468 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-2022-49468 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-49468 is a medium-severity denial of service 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-2022-49468 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-2022-49468/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49468/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-49468
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-49468
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-49468

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49468/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.