CVE-2022-49759 VMCI: Use threaded irqs instead of tasklets
A sleeping function called in atomic context in the VMCI driver can cause a deadlock, leading to a denial of service.
- 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-2022-49759?
CVE-2022-49759 is a medium-severity denial of service 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:
VMCI: Use threaded irqs instead of tasklets
The vmci_dispatch_dgs() tasklet function calls vmci_read_data() which uses wait_event() resulting in invalid sleep in an atomic context (and therefore potentially in a deadlock).
Use threaded irqs to fix this issue and completely remove usage of tasklets.
[ 20.264639] BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at drivers/misc/vmw_vmci/vmci_guest.c:145 [ 20.264643] in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 762, name: vmtoolsd [ 20.264645] preempt_count: 101, expected: 0 [ 20.264646] RCU nest depth: 0, expected: 0 [ 20.264647] 1 lock held by vmtoolsd/762: [ 20.264648] #0: ffff0000874ae440 (sk_lock-AF_VSOCK){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: vsock_connect+0x60/0x330 [vsock] [ 20.264658] Preemption disabled at: [ 20.264659] [<ffff80000151d7d8>] vmci_send_datagram+0x44/0xa0 [vmw_vmci] [ 20.264665] CPU: 0 PID: 762 Comm: vmtoolsd Not tainted 5.19.0-0.rc8.20220727git39c3c396f813.60.fc37.aarch64 #1 [ 20.264667] Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VBSA/VBSA, BIOS VEFI 12/31/2020 [ 20.264668] Call trace: [ 20.264669] dump_backtrace+0xc4/0x130 [ 20.264672] show_stack+0x24/0x80 [ 20.264673] dump_stack_lvl+0x88/0xb4 [ 20.264676] dump_stack+0x18/0x34 [ 20.264677] __might_resched+0x1a0/0x280 [ 20.264679] __might_sleep+0x58/0x90 [ 20.264681] vmci_read_data+0x74/0x120 [vmw_vmci] [ 20.264683] vmci_dispatch_dgs+0x64/0x204 [vmw_vmci] [ 20.264686] tasklet_action_common.constprop.0+0x13c/0x150 [ 20.264688] tasklet_action+0x40/0x50 [ 20.264689] __do_softirq+0x23c/0x6b4 [ 20.264690] __irq_exit_rcu+0x104/0x214 [ 20.264691] irq_exit_rcu+0x1c/0x50 [ 20.264693] el1_interrupt+0x38/0x6c [ 20.264695] el1h_64_irq_handler+0x18/0x24 [ 20.264696] el1h_64_irq+0x68/0x6c [ 20.264697] preempt_count_sub+0xa4/0xe0 [ 20.264698] _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0x64/0xb0 [ 20.264701] vmci_send_datagram+0x7c/0xa0 [vmw_vmci] [ 20.264703] vmci_datagram_dispatch+0x84/0x100 [vmw_vmci] [ 20.264706] vmci_datagram_send+0x2c/0x40 [vmw_vmci] [ 20.264709] vmci_transport_send_control_pkt+0xb8/0x120 [vmw_vsock_vmci_transport] [ 20.264711] vmci_transport_connect+0x40/0x7c [vmw_vsock_vmci_transport] [ 20.264713] vsock_connect+0x278/0x330 [vsock] [ 20.264715] __sys_connect_file+0x8c/0xc0 [ 20.264718] __sys_connect+0x84/0xb4 [ 20.264720] __arm64_sys_connect+0x2c/0x3c [ 20.264721] invoke_syscall+0x78/0x100 [ 20.264723] el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0x68/0x124 [ 20.264724] do_el0_svc+0x38/0x4c [ 20.264725] el0_svc+0x60/0x180 [ 20.264726] el0t_64_sync_handler+0x11c/0x150 [ 20.264728] el0t_64_sync+0x190/0x194
Weakness: CWE-667
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49759?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-49759?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2022-49759 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49759 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49759, GHSA-jhxv-jq7p-9qhc, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2022-49759, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49759.