# CVE-2022-49623: powerpc/xive/spapr: correct bitmap allocation size

> A kernel bug in the PowerPC XIVE/SPAPR driver causes an out-of-bounds read, potentially leading to a system crash or denial of service.

- **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-2022-49623, GHSA-7cgw-456x-7466, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2022-49623, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49623

## What is CVE-2022-49623?

CVE-2022-49623 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:

powerpc/xive/spapr: correct bitmap allocation size

kasan detects access beyond the end of the xibm->bitmap allocation:

BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in _find_first_zero_bit+0x40/0x140
Read of size 8 at addr c00000001d1d0118 by task swapper/0/1

CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 5.19.0-rc2-00001-g90df023b36dd #28
Call Trace:
[c00000001d98f770] [c0000000012baab8] dump_stack_lvl+0xac/0x108 (unreliable)
[c00000001d98f7b0] [c00000000068faac] print_report+0x37c/0x710
[c00000001d98f880] [c0000000006902c0] kasan_report+0x110/0x354
[c00000001d98f950] [c000000000692324] __asan_load8+0xa4/0xe0
[c00000001d98f970] [c0000000011c6ed0] _find_first_zero_bit+0x40/0x140
[c00000001d98f9b0] [c0000000000dbfbc] xive_spapr_get_ipi+0xcc/0x260
[c00000001d98fa70] [c0000000000d6d28] xive_setup_cpu_ipi+0x1e8/0x450
[c00000001d98fb30] [c000000004032a20] pSeries_smp_probe+0x5c/0x118
[c00000001d98fb60] [c000000004018b44] smp_prepare_cpus+0x944/0x9ac
[c00000001d98fc90] [c000000004009f9c] kernel_init_freeable+0x2d4/0x640
[c00000001d98fd90] [c0000000000131e8] kernel_init+0x28/0x1d0
[c00000001d98fe10] [c00000000000cd54] ret_from_kernel_thread+0x5c/0x64

Allocated by task 0:
 kasan_save_stack+0x34/0x70
 __kasan_kmalloc+0xb4/0xf0
 __kmalloc+0x268/0x540
 xive_spapr_init+0x4d0/0x77c
 pseries_init_irq+0x40/0x27c
 init_IRQ+0x44/0x84
 start_kernel+0x2a4/0x538
 start_here_common+0x1c/0x20

The buggy address belongs to the object at c00000001d1d0118
 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-8 of size 8
The buggy address is located 0 bytes inside of
 8-byte region [c00000001d1d0118, c00000001d1d0120)

The buggy address belongs to the physical page:
page:c00c000000074740 refcount:1 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0xc00000001d1d0558 pfn:0x1d1d
flags: 0x7ffff000000200(slab|node=0|zone=0|lastcpupid=0x7ffff)
raw: 007ffff000000200 c00000001d0003c8 c00000001d0003c8 c00000001d010480
raw: c00000001d1d0558 0000000001e1000a 00000001ffffffff 0000000000000000
page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected

Memory state around the buggy address:
 c00000001d1d0000: fc 00 fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc
 c00000001d1d0080: fc fc 00 fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc
>c00000001d1d0100: fc fc fc 02 fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc
                            ^
 c00000001d1d0180: fc fc fc fc 04 fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc
 c00000001d1d0200: fc fc fc fc fc 04 fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc

This happens because the allocation uses the wrong unit (bits) when it
should pass (BITS_TO_LONGS(count) * sizeof(long)) or equivalent. With small
numbers of bits, the allocated object can be smaller than sizeof(long),
which results in invalid accesses.

Use bitmap_zalloc() to allocate and initialize the irq bitmap, paired with
bitmap_free() for consistency.

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49623?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-49623?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-49623 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49623 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-2022-49623 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-49623 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-2022-49623 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-2022-49623/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49623/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-49623
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-49623
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-49623

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49623/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.