CVE-2022-48972: mac802154: fix missing INIT_LIST_HEAD in ieee802154_if_add()

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2024-10-21 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mac802154: fix missing INIT_LIST_HEAD in ieee802154_if_add() Kernel fault injection test reports null-ptr-deref as follows: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000008 RIP: 0010:cfg802154_netdev_notifier_call+0x120/0x310 include/linux/list.h:114 Call Trace: <TASK> raw_notifier_call_chain+0x6d/0xa0 kernel/notifier.c:87 call_netdevice_notifiers_info+0x6e/0xc0 net/core/dev.c:1944 unregister_netdevice_many_notify+0x60d/0xcb0 net/core/dev.c:1982 unregister_netdevice_queue+0x154/0x1a0 net/core/dev.c:10879 register_netdevice+0x9a8/0xb90 net/core/dev.c:10083 ieee802154_if_add+0x6ed/0x7e0 net/mac802154/iface.c:659 ieee802154_register_hw+0x29c/0x330 net/mac802154/main.c:229 mcr20a_probe+0xaaa/0xcb1 drivers/net/ieee802154/mcr20a.c:1316 ieee802154_if_add() allocates wpan_dev as netdev's private data, but not init the list in struct wpan_dev. cfg802154_netdev_notifier_call() manage the list when device register/unregister, and may lead to null-ptr-deref. Use INIT_LIST_HEAD() on it to initialize it correctly.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 3.19 before 4.9.336; from 4.10 before 4.14.302; from 4.15 before 4.19.269; from 4.20 before 5.4.227; from 5.5 before 5.10.159; from 5.11 before 5.15.83 — fixed in 4.14.302, 4.19.269, 4.9.336, 5.10.159, 5.15.83, 5.4.227

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 4.14.302, 4.19.269, 4.9.336, 5.10.159. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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