CVE-2022-49869 bnxt_en: Fix possible crash in bnxt_hwrm_set_coal()

Medium 5.5 Published 1 May 2025 Updated 11 May 2026

A null pointer dereference in the bnxt_en network driver during error recovery can cause a kernel crash, leading to 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-2022-49869?

CVE-2022-49869 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 May 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:

bnxt_en: Fix possible crash in bnxt_hwrm_set_coal()

During the error recovery sequence, the rtnl_lock is not held for the entire duration and some datastructures may be freed during the sequence. Check for the BNXT_STATE_OPEN flag instead of netif_running() to ensure that the device is fully operational before proceeding to reconfigure the coalescing settings.

This will fix a possible crash like this:

BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0000000000000000 PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI CPU: 10 PID: 181276 Comm: ethtool Kdump: loaded Tainted: G IOE --------- - - 4.18.0-348.el8.x86_64 #1 Hardware name: Dell Inc. PowerEdge R740/0F9N89, BIOS 2.3.10 08/15/2019 RIP: 0010:bnxt_hwrm_set_coal+0x1fb/0x2a0 [bnxt_en] Code: c2 66 83 4e 22 08 66 89 46 1c e8 10 cb 00 00 41 83 c6 01 44 39 b3 68 01 00 00 0f 8e a3 00 00 00 48 8b 93 c8 00 00 00 49 63 c6 <48> 8b 2c c2 48 8b 85 b8 02 00 00 48 85 c0 74 2e 48 8b 74 24 08 f6 RSP: 0018:ffffb11c8dcaba50 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff8d168a8b0ac0 RCX: 00000000000000c5 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffff8d162f72c000 RDI: ffff8d168a8b0b28 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: b6e1f68a12e9a7eb R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000037 R12: ffff8d168a8b109c R13: ffff8d168a8b10aa R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffffffffc01ac4e0 FS: 00007f3852e4c740(0000) GS:ffff8d24c0080000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 000000041b3ee003 CR4: 00000000007706e0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 PKRU: 55555554 Call Trace: ethnl_set_coalesce+0x3ce/0x4c0 genl_family_rcv_msg_doit.isra.15+0x10f/0x150 genl_family_rcv_msg+0xb3/0x160 ? coalesce_fill_reply+0x480/0x480 genl_rcv_msg+0x47/0x90 ? genl_family_rcv_msg+0x160/0x160 netlink_rcv_skb+0x4c/0x120 genl_rcv+0x24/0x40 netlink_unicast+0x196/0x230 netlink_sendmsg+0x204/0x3d0 sock_sendmsg+0x4c/0x50 __sys_sendto+0xee/0x160 ? syscall_trace_enter+0x1d3/0x2c0 ? __audit_syscall_exit+0x249/0x2a0 __x64_sys_sendto+0x24/0x30 do_syscall_64+0x5b/0x1a0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x65/0xca RIP: 0033:0x7f38524163bb

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49869?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2022-49869?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2022-49869 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49869 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49869, GHSA-c7jg-hhpr-v5pq, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49869.