CVE-2022-49568 KVM: Don't null dereference ops->destroy

What is CVE-2022-49568?

CVE-2022-49568 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:

KVM: Don't null dereference ops->destroy

A KVM device cleanup happens in either of two callbacks: 1) destroy() which is called when the VM is being destroyed; 2) release() which is called when a device fd is closed.

Most KVM devices use 1) but Book3s's interrupt controller KVM devices (XICS, XIVE, XIVE-native) use 2) as they need to close and reopen during the machine execution. The error handling in kvm_ioctl_create_device() assumes destroy() is always defined which leads to NULL dereference as discovered by Syzkaller.

This adds a checks for destroy!=NULL and adds a missing release().

This is not changing kvm_destroy_devices() as devices with defined release() should have been removed from the KVM devices list by then.

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49568?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2022-49568?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2022-49568 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49568 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-2022-49568, GHSA-vpqc-5phg-hjvg, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49568.