CVE-2022-49901 blk-mq: Fix kmemleak in blk_mq_init_allocated_queue

What is CVE-2022-49901?

CVE-2022-49901 is a medium-severity memory corruption 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:

blk-mq: Fix kmemleak in blk_mq_init_allocated_queue

There is a kmemleak caused by modprobe null_blk.ko

unreferenced object 0xffff8881acb1f000 (size 1024): comm "modprobe", pid 836, jiffies 4294971190 (age 27.068s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 ad 4e ad de ff ff ff ff 00 00 00 00 .....N.......... ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 00 53 99 9e ff ff ff ff .........S...... backtrace: [<000000004a10c249>] kmalloc_node_trace+0x22/0x60 [<00000000648f7950>] blk_mq_alloc_and_init_hctx+0x289/0x350 [<00000000af06de0e>] blk_mq_realloc_hw_ctxs+0x2fe/0x3d0 [<00000000e00c1872>] blk_mq_init_allocated_queue+0x48c/0x1440 [<00000000d16b4e68>] __blk_mq_alloc_disk+0xc8/0x1c0 [<00000000d10c98c3>] 0xffffffffc450d69d [<00000000b9299f48>] 0xffffffffc4538392 [<0000000061c39ed6>] do_one_initcall+0xd0/0x4f0 [<00000000b389383b>] do_init_module+0x1a4/0x680 [<0000000087cf3542>] load_module+0x6249/0x7110 [<00000000beba61b8>] __do_sys_finit_module+0x140/0x200 [<00000000fdcfff51>] do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80 [<000000003c0f1f71>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0

That is because q->ma_ops is set to NULL before blk_release_queue is called.

blk_mq_init_queue_data blk_mq_init_allocated_queue blk_mq_realloc_hw_ctxs for (i = 0; i < set->nr_hw_queues; i++) { old_hctx = xa_load(&q->hctx_table, i); if (!blk_mq_alloc_and_init_hctx(.., i, ..)) [1] if (!old_hctx) break;

xa_for_each_start(&q->hctx_table, j, hctx, j) blk_mq_exit_hctx(q, set, hctx, j); [2]

if (!q->nr_hw_queues) [3] goto err_hctxs;

err_exit: q->mq_ops = NULL; [4]

blk_put_queue blk_release_queue if (queue_is_mq(q)) [5] blk_mq_release(q);

[1]: blk_mq_alloc_and_init_hctx failed at i != 0. [2]: The hctxs allocated by [1] are moved to q->unused_hctx_list and will be cleaned up in blk_mq_release. [3]: q->nr_hw_queues is 0. [4]: Set q->mq_ops to NULL. [5]: queue_is_mq returns false due to [4]. And blk_mq_release will not be called. The hctxs in q->unused_hctx_list are leaked.

To fix it, call blk_release_queue in exception path.

Weakness: CWE-401

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49901?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2022-49901?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2022-49901 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49901 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as AZL-61715, DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49901, GHSA-pmj7-4375-32j4, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2022-49901, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2022-49901, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49901.