CVE-2022-49520

arm64: compat: Do not treat syscall number as ESR_ELx for a bad syscall

MEDIUM
5.5
CVSS Score
Published: February 26, 2025 at 02:13 AM UTC
Updated: August 15, 2026 at 01:36 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
MEDIUM5.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.3%

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: arm64: compat: Do not treat syscall number as ESR_ELx for a bad syscall If a compat process tries to execute an unknown system call above the __ARM_NR_COMPAT_END number, the kernel sends a SIGILL signal to the offending process. Information about the error is printed to dmesg in compat_arm_syscall() -> arm64_notify_die() -> arm64_force_sig_fault() -> arm64_show_signal(). arm64_show_signal() interprets a non-zero value for current->thread.fault_code as an exception syndrome and displays the message associated with the ESR_ELx.EC field (bits 31:26). current->thread.fault_code is set in compat_arm_syscall() -> arm64_notify_die() with the bad syscall number instead of a valid ESR_ELx value. This means that the ESR_ELx.EC field has the value that the user set for the syscall number and the kernel can end up printing bogus exception messages*. For example, for the syscall number 0x68000000, which evaluates to ESR_ELx.EC value of 0x1A (ESR_ELx_EC_FPAC) the kernel prints this error: [ 18.349161] syscall[300]: unhandled exception: ERET/ERETAA/ERETAB, ESR 0x68000000, Oops - bad compat syscall(2) in syscall[10000+50000] [ 18.350639] CPU: 2 PID: 300 Comm: syscall Not tainted 5.18.0-rc1 #79 [ 18.351249] Hardware name: Pine64 RockPro64 v2.0 (DT) [..] which is misleading, as the bad compat syscall has nothing to do with pointer authentication. Stop arm64_show_signal() from printing exception syndrome information by having compat_arm_syscall() set the ESR_ELx value to 0, as it has no meaning for an invalid system call number. The example above now becomes: [ 19.935275] syscall[301]: unhandled exception: Oops - bad compat syscall(2) in syscall[10000+50000] [ 19.936124] CPU: 1 PID: 301 Comm: syscall Not tainted 5.18.0-rc1-00005-g7e08006d4102 #80 [ 19.936894] Hardware name: Pine64 RockPro64 v2.0 (DT) [..] which although shows less information because the syscall number, wrongfully advertised as the ESR value, is missing, it is better than showing plainly wrong information. The syscall number can be easily obtained with strace. *A 32-bit value above or equal to 0x8000_0000 is interpreted as a negative integer in compat_arm_syscal() and the condition scno < __ARM_NR_COMPAT_END evaluates to true; the syscall will exit to userspace in this case with the ENOSYS error code instead of arm64_notify_die() being called.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 5.4.1984.17 ≤ v < 5.10.1214.17 ≤ v < 5.15.464.17 ≤ v < 5.17.144.17 ≤ v < 5.18.34.17 ≤ v < 5.194.17 ≤ v < 5.4.1985.11 ≤ v < 5.15.465.16 ≤ v < 5.17.145.18 ≤ v < 5.18.35.5 ≤ v < 5.10.1214.17532826f3712b607256eb30f92f23d1c604d3fa34
Vendor states this is fixed in 095e975f8150ccd7f852eb578c1cdbdd2f517c7a (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 3910ae71cb963fa2b68e684489d4fc3d105afda0 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 3fed9e551417b84038b15117732ea4505eee386b (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 621916afe8cd4f322eb12759b64a2f938d4e551d (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in ad97425d23af3c3b8d4f6a2bb666cb485087c007 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in efd183d988b416fcdf6f7c298a17ced4859ca77d (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 4.17 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.10.121 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.15.46 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.17.14 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.18.3 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.19 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.4.198 (unaffected)

References (6)

Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/095e975f8150ccd7f852eb578c1cdbdd2f517c7a
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3910ae71cb963fa2b68e684489d4fc3d105afda0
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3fed9e551417b84038b15117732ea4505eee386b
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/621916afe8cd4f322eb12759b64a2f938d4e551d
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ad97425d23af3c3b8d4f6a2bb666cb485087c007
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/efd183d988b416fcdf6f7c298a17ced4859ca77d

CVSS

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
NVD-CWE-noinfo

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