# CVE-2022-49700: mm/slub: add missing TID updates on slab deactivation

> A race condition in the Linux kernel's SLUB allocator can lead to memory corruption, potentially causing denial of service or arbitrary code execution.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49700, GHSA-p247-4v6m-f77m, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49700

## What is CVE-2022-49700?

CVE-2022-49700 is a high-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:

mm/slub: add missing TID updates on slab deactivation

The fastpath in slab_alloc_node() assumes that c->slab is stable as long as
the TID stays the same. However, two places in __slab_alloc() currently
don't update the TID when deactivating the CPU slab.

If multiple operations race the right way, this could lead to an object
getting lost; or, in an even more unlikely situation, it could even lead to
an object being freed onto the wrong slab's freelist, messing up the
`inuse` counter and eventually causing a page to be freed to the page
allocator while it still contains slab objects.

(I haven't actually tested these cases though, this is just based on
looking at the code. Writing testcases for this stuff seems like it'd be
a pain...)

The race leading to state inconsistency is (all operations on the same CPU
and kmem_cache):

 - task A: begin do_slab_free():
    - read TID
    - read pcpu freelist (==NULL)
    - check `slab == c->slab` (true)
 - [PREEMPT A->B]
 - task B: begin slab_alloc_node():
    - fastpath fails (`c->freelist` is NULL)
    - enter __slab_alloc()
    - slub_get_cpu_ptr() (disables preemption)
    - enter ___slab_alloc()
    - take local_lock_irqsave()
    - read c->freelist as NULL
    - get_freelist() returns NULL
    - write `c->slab = NULL`
    - drop local_unlock_irqrestore()
    - goto new_slab
    - slub_percpu_partial() is NULL
    - get_partial() returns NULL
    - slub_put_cpu_ptr() (enables preemption)
 - [PREEMPT B->A]
 - task A: finish do_slab_free():
    - this_cpu_cmpxchg_double() succeeds()
    - [CORRUPT STATE: c->slab==NULL, c->freelist!=NULL]

From there, the object on c->freelist will get lost if task B is allowed to
continue from here: It will proceed to the retry_load_slab label,
set c->slab, then jump to load_freelist, which clobbers c->freelist.

But if we instead continue as follows, we get worse corruption:

 - task A: run __slab_free() on object from other struct slab:
    - CPU_PARTIAL_FREE case (slab was on no list, is now on pcpu partial)
 - task A: run slab_alloc_node() with NUMA node constraint:
    - fastpath fails (c->slab is NULL)
    - call __slab_alloc()
    - slub_get_cpu_ptr() (disables preemption)
    - enter ___slab_alloc()
    - c->slab is NULL: goto new_slab
    - slub_percpu_partial() is non-NULL
    - set c->slab to slub_percpu_partial(c)
    - [CORRUPT STATE: c->slab points to slab-1, c->freelist has objects
      from slab-2]
    - goto redo
    - node_match() fails
    - goto deactivate_slab
    - existing c->freelist is passed into deactivate_slab()
    - inuse count of slab-1 is decremented to account for object from
      slab-2

At this point, the inuse count of slab-1 is 1 lower than it should be.
This means that if we free all allocated objects in slab-1 except for one,
SLUB will think that slab-1 is completely unused, and may free its page,
leading to use-after-free.

Weakness: CWE-416 (Use After Free)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49700?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-49700?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-49700 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49700 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-2022-49700 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-49700 is a high-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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49700 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-2022-49700/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49700/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-49700
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-49700
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-49700

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49700/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.