CVE-2022-49419: video: fbdev: vesafb: Fix a use-after-free due early fb_info cleanup

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 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: 2025-02-26 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-416

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: video: fbdev: vesafb: Fix a use-after-free due early fb_info cleanup Commit b3c9a924aab6 ("fbdev: vesafb: Cleanup fb_info in .fb_destroy rather than .remove") fixed a use-after-free error due the vesafb driver freeing the fb_info in the .remove handler instead of doing it in .fb_destroy. This can happen if the .fb_destroy callback is executed after the .remove callback, since the former tries to access a pointer freed by the latter. But that change didn't take into account that another possible scenario is that .fb_destroy is called before the .remove callback. For example, if no process has the fbdev chardev opened by the time the driver is removed. If that's the case, fb_info will be freed when unregister_framebuffer() is called, making the fb_info pointer accessed in vesafb_remove() after that to no longer be valid. To prevent that, move the expression containing the info->par to happen before the unregister_framebuffer() function call.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 5.15.41 before 5.15.46; from 5.17.9 before 5.17.14; from 5.18 before 5.18.3 — fixed in 5.15.46, 5.17.14, 5.18.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.15.46, 5.17.14, 5.18.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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