# CVE-2022-49964: arm64: cacheinfo: Fix incorrect assignment of signed error value to unsigned fw_level

> An integer overflow in the Linux kernel arm64 cacheinfo code can cause a kernel warning and potential denial of service during boot.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:** 18 Jun 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49964, GHSA-38cm-9rgr-4wrv, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49964

## What is CVE-2022-49964?

CVE-2022-49964 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Jun 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:

arm64: cacheinfo: Fix incorrect assignment of signed error value to unsigned fw_level

Though acpi_find_last_cache_level() always returned signed value and the
document states it will return any errors caused by lack of a PPTT table,
it never returned negative values before.

Commit 0c80f9e165f8 ("ACPI: PPTT: Leave the table mapped for the runtime usage")
however changed it by returning -ENOENT if no PPTT was found. The value
returned from acpi_find_last_cache_level() is then assigned to unsigned
fw_level.

It will result in the number of cache leaves calculated incorrectly as
a huge value which will then cause the following warning from __alloc_pages
as the order would be great than MAX_ORDER because of incorrect and huge
cache leaves value.

  |  WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 1 at mm/page_alloc.c:5407 __alloc_pages+0x74/0x314
  |  Modules linked in:
  |  CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 5.19.0-10393-g7c2a8d3ac4c0 #73
  |  pstate: 20000005 (nzCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)
  |  pc : __alloc_pages+0x74/0x314
  |  lr : alloc_pages+0xe8/0x318
  |  Call trace:
  |   __alloc_pages+0x74/0x314
  |   alloc_pages+0xe8/0x318
  |   kmalloc_order_trace+0x68/0x1dc
  |   __kmalloc+0x240/0x338
  |   detect_cache_attributes+0xe0/0x56c
  |   update_siblings_masks+0x38/0x284
  |   store_cpu_topology+0x78/0x84
  |   smp_prepare_cpus+0x48/0x134
  |   kernel_init_freeable+0xc4/0x14c
  |   kernel_init+0x2c/0x1b4
  |   ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20

Fix the same by changing fw_level to be signed integer and return the
error from init_cache_level() early in case of error.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49964?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-49964?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-49964 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49964 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-2022-49964 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-49964 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Jun 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-2022-49964 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-2022-49964/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49964/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-49964
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-49964
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-49964

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49964/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.