high CVSS 7.8

CVE-2022-48805·Kernel vulnerability

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: usb: ax88179_178a: Fix out-of-bounds accesses in RX fixup ax88179_rx_fixup() contains several out-of-bounds accesses that can be triggered by a malicious (or defective) USB device, in particular: - The metadata array (hdr_off..hdr_off+2*pkt_cnt) can be out of bounds, causing OOB reads and (on big-endian systems) OOB endianness flips. - A packet can overlap the metadata array, causing a later OOB endianness flip to corrupt data used by a cloned SKB that has already been handed off into the network stack. - A packet SKB can be constructed whose tail is far beyond its end, causing out-of-bounds heap data to be considered part of the SKB's data. I have tested that this can be used by a malicious USB device to send a bogus ICMPv6 Echo Request and receive an ICMPv6 Echo Reply in response that contains random kernel heap data. It's probably also possible to get OOB writes from this on a little-endian system somehow - maybe by triggering skb_cow() via IP options processing -, but I haven't tested that.

Severity: high
Software: Kernel
Fixed in: 5.16.10
Published: 2024-07-16

Affected versions

From: 5.16

Until: 5.16.10

Fixed in: 5.16.10

How to fix this CVE

Update your Linux kernel to version 5.16.10 or later to fix critical out-of-bounds memory access vulnerabilities in the AX88179/AX88178A USB Ethernet driver. These memory safety issues in the RX packet processing routine could allow a malicious USB device to leak kernel heap data or cause memory corruption. Systems using affected AX88xxx USB network adapters should prioritize this update.

sudo dnf update kernel kernel-devel

Defensia detects this vulnerability

How to check if you are affected

Check your current kernel version by running: uname -r
Verify if the system has AX88179 or AX88178A USB Ethernet adapters connected: lsusb | grep -i 'asix\|ax88'
Confirm if the kernel version is between 5.16.0 and 5.16.9: grep -oP 'release = \K[0-9.]+' /proc/version || uname -r
After patching, reboot and confirm the new kernel version loads: uname -r (should be 5.16.10 or higher)

FAQ

What is CVE-2022-48805?

CVE-2022-48805 is a high-severity memory safety flaw in the Linux kernel's AX88179/AX88178A USB Ethernet driver where the RX packet processing function fails to validate buffer boundaries, allowing out-of-bounds reads and potential heap data disclosure or corruption.

Is CVE-2022-48805 being actively exploited?

No, CVE-2022-48805 is not listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog and no public exploits are available, though the vulnerability requires physical access to a malicious USB device to trigger.

What versions of Kernel are affected by CVE-2022-48805?

Linux kernel versions 5.16.0 through 5.16.9 are affected. Version 5.16.10 and later contain the fix.

How do I check if my server is vulnerable to CVE-2022-48805?

Run 'uname -r' to check your kernel version. If the output shows 5.16.0 through 5.16.9, your system is vulnerable. Also confirm you have an AX88179 or AX88178A USB adapter with 'lsusb | grep -i asix'.

Does Defensia detect CVE-2022-48805?

Yes — Defensia's CVE advisory scanner compares installed package versions against the NVD database. If the Linux kernel is installed on a monitored server, CVE-2022-48805 will appear in your dashboard with remediation steps.

Related Kernel CVEs

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CVE-2026-52986CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: nf_conntrack_sip: don't use simple_strtoul Replace unsafe port parsing in epaddr_len(), ct_sip_parse_header_uri(), and ct_sip_parse_request() with a new sip_parse_port() helper that validates each digit against the buffer limit, eliminating the use of simple_strtoul() which assumes NUL-terminated strings. The previous code dereferenced pointers without bounds checks after sip_parse_addr() and relied on simple_strtoul() on non-NUL-terminated skb data. A port that reaches the buffer limit without a trailing character is also rejected as malformed. Also get rid of all simple_strtoul() usage in conntrack, prefer a stricter version instead. There are intentional changes: - Bail out if number is > UINT_MAX and indicate a failure, same for too long sequences. While we do accept 05535 as port 5535, we will not accept e.g. 'sip:10.0.0.1:005060'. While its syntactically valid under RFC 3261, we should restrict this to not waste cycles when presented with malformed packets with 64k '0' characters. - Force base 10 in ct_sip_parse_numerical_param(). This is used to fetch 'expire=' and 'rports='; both are expected to use base-10. - In nf_nat_sip.c, only accept the parsed value if its within the 1k-64k range. - epaddr_len now returns 0 if the port is invalid, as it already does for invalid ip addresses. This is intentional. nf_conntrack_sip performs lots of guesswork to find the right parts of the message to parse. Being stricter could break existing setups. Connection tracking helpers are designed to allow traffic to pass, not to block it. Based on an earlier patch from Jenny Guanni Qu <qguanni@gmail.com>.

CVE-2026-63993CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vxlan: do not reuse cached ip_hdr() value after skb_tunnel_check_pmtu() skb_tunnel_check_pmtu() can change skb->head. Reusing old_iph afer skb_tunnel_check_pmtu() can cause an UAF. Use instead ip_hdr(skb) as done in drivers/net/bareudp.c and drivers/net/geneve.c. Found by Sashiko.

CVE-2026-64046CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: tls: prevent chain-after-chain in plain text SG Sashiko points out that if end = 0 (start != 0) the current code will create a chain link to content type right after the wrap link: This would create a chain where the wrap link points directly to another chain link. The scatterlist API sg_next iterator does not recursively resolve consecutive chain links. meaning this is illegal input to crypto. The wrapping link is unnecessary if end = 0. end is the entry after the last one used so end = 0 means there's nothing pushed after the wrap: end start i v v v [ ]...[ ][ d ][ d ][ d ][ d ][rsv for wrap] Skip the wrapping in this case. TLS 1.3 can use the "wrapping slot" for it's chaining if end = 0. This avoids the chain-after-chain. Move the wrap chaining before marking END and chaining off content type, that feels like more logical ordering to me, but should not matter from functional perspective.

CVE-2026-64055CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: ethernet: cortina: Carry over frag counter The gmac_rx() NAPI poll function assembles packets in an SKB from a ring buffer. If the ring buffer gets completely emptied during a poll cycle, we exit gmac_rx(), but the packet is not yet completely assembled in the SKB, yet the fragment counter frag_nr is reset to zero on the next invocation. Solve this by making the RX fragment counter a part of the port struct, and carry it over between invocations. Reset the fragment counter only right after calling napi_gro_frags(), on error (after calling napi_free_frags()) or if stopping the port. Reset it in some place where not strictly necessary just to emphasize what is going on. This was found by Sashiko during normal patch review.

References

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