CVE-2022-49753 dmaengine: Fix double increment of client_count in dma_chan_get()
A double increment bug in the Linux kernel DMA engine causes reference count underflows, leading to use-after-free conditions and potential system crashes.
- 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
What is CVE-2022-49753?
CVE-2022-49753 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Mar 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:
dmaengine: Fix double increment of client_count in dma_chan_get()
The first time dma_chan_get() is called for a channel the channel client_count is incorrectly incremented twice for public channels, first in balance_ref_count(), and again prior to returning. This results in an incorrect client count which will lead to the channel resources not being freed when they should be. A simple test of repeated module load and unload of async_tx on a Dell Power Edge R7425 also shows this resulting in a kref underflow warning.
[ 124.329662] async_tx: api initialized (async) [ 129.000627] async_tx: api initialized (async) [ 130.047839] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 130.052472] refcount_t: underflow; use-after-free. [ 130.057279] WARNING: CPU: 3 PID: 19364 at lib/refcount.c:28 refcount_warn_saturate+0xba/0x110 [ 130.065811] Modules linked in: async_tx(-) rfkill intel_rapl_msr intel_rapl_common amd64_edac edac_mce_amd ipmi_ssif kvm_amd dcdbas kvm mgag200 drm_shmem_helper acpi_ipmi irqbypass drm_kms_helper ipmi_si syscopyarea sysfillrect rapl pcspkr ipmi_devintf sysimgblt fb_sys_fops k10temp i2c_piix4 ipmi_msghandler acpi_power_meter acpi_cpufreq vfat fat drm fuse xfs libcrc32c sd_mod t10_pi sg ahci crct10dif_pclmul libahci crc32_pclmul crc32c_intel ghash_clmulni_intel igb megaraid_sas i40e libata i2c_algo_bit ccp sp5100_tco dca dm_mirror dm_region_hash dm_log dm_mod [last unloaded: async_tx] [ 130.117361] CPU: 3 PID: 19364 Comm: modprobe Kdump: loaded Not tainted 5.14.0-185.el9.x86_64 #1 [ 130.126091] Hardware name: Dell Inc. PowerEdge R7425/02MJ3T, BIOS 1.18.0 01/17/2022 [ 130.133806] RIP: 0010:refcount_warn_saturate+0xba/0x110 [ 130.139041] Code: 01 01 e8 6d bd 55 00 0f 0b e9 72 9d 8a 00 80 3d 26 18 9c 01 00 75 85 48 c7 c7 f8 a3 03 9d c6 05 16 18 9c 01 01 e8 4a bd 55 00 <0f> 0b e9 4f 9d 8a 00 80 3d 01 18 9c 01 00 0f 85 5e ff ff ff 48 c7 [ 130.157807] RSP: 0018:ffffbf98898afe68 EFLAGS: 00010286 [ 130.163036] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff9da06028e598 RCX: 0000000000000000 [ 130.170172] RDX: ffff9daf9de26480 RSI: ffff9daf9de198a0 RDI: ffff9daf9de198a0 [ 130.177316] RBP: ffff9da7cddf3970 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 00000000ffff7fff [ 130.184459] R10: ffffbf98898afd00 R11: ffffffff9d9e8c28 R12: ffff9da7cddf1970 [ 130.191596] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000 [ 130.198739] FS: 00007f646435c740(0000) GS:ffff9daf9de00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 130.206832] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 130.212586] CR2: 00007f6463b214f0 CR3: 00000008ab98c000 CR4: 00000000003506e0 [ 130.219729] Call Trace: [ 130.222192] <TASK> [ 130.224305] dma_chan_put+0x10d/0x110 [ 130.227988] dmaengine_put+0x7a/0xa0 [ 130.231575] __do_sys_delete_module.constprop.0+0x178/0x280 [ 130.237157] ? syscall_trace_enter.constprop.0+0x145/0x1d0 [ 130.242652] do_syscall_64+0x5c/0x90 [ 130.246240] ? exc_page_fault+0x62/0x150 [ 130.250178] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd [ 130.255243] RIP: 0033:0x7f6463a3f5ab [ 130.258830] Code: 73 01 c3 48 8b 0d 75 a8 1b 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48 83 c8 ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 f3 0f 1e fa b8 b0 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 8b 0d 45 a8 1b 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48 [ 130.277591] RSP: 002b:00007fff22f972c8 EFLAGS: 00000206 ORIG_RAX: 00000000000000b0 [ 130.285164] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 000055b6786edd40 RCX: 00007f6463a3f5ab [ 130.292303] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000800 RDI: 000055b6786edda8 [ 130.299443] RBP: 000055b6786edd40 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 [ 130.306584] R10: 00007f6463b9eac0 R11: 0000000000000206 R12: 000055b6786edda8 [ 130.313731] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 000055b6786edda8 R15: 00007fff22f995f8 [ 130.320875] </TASK> [ 130.323081] ---[ end trace eff7156d56b5cf25 ]---
cat /sys/class/dma/dma0chan*/in_use would get the wrong result. 2 2 2
Test-by: Jie Hai <[email protected]>
Weakness: CWE-416
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49753?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-49753?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.
Is CVE-2022-49753 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49753 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49753, GHSA-c6c6-6xm6-jhp9, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49753.