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CVE Record

CVE-2022-48797: mm: don't try to NUMA-migrate COW pages that have other uses

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: don't try to NUMA-migrate COW pages that have other uses Oded Gabbay reports that enabling NUMA balancing causes corruption with his Gaudi accelerator test load: "All the details are in the bug, but the bottom line is that somehow, this patch causes corruption when the numa balancing feature is enabled AND we don't use process affinity AND we use GUP to pin pages so our accelerator can DMA to/from system memory. Either disabling numa balancing, using process affinity to bind to specific numa-node or reverting this patch causes the bug to disappear" and Oded bisected the issue to commit 09854ba94c6a ("mm: do_wp_page() simplification"). Now, the NUMA balancing shouldn't actually be changing the writability of a page, and as such shouldn't matter for COW. But it appears it does. Suspicious. However, regardless of that, the condition for enabling NUMA faults in change_pte_range() is nonsensical. It uses "page_mapcount(page)" to decide if a COW page should be NUMA-protected or not, and that makes absolutely no sense. The number of mappings a page has is irrelevant: not only does GUP get a reference to a page as in Oded's case, but the other mappings migth be paged out and the only reference to them would be in the page count. Since we should never try to NUMA-balance a page that we can't move anyway due to other references, just fix the code to use 'page_count()'. Oded confirms that that fixes his issue. Now, this does imply that something in NUMA balancing ends up changing page protections (other than the obvious one of making the page inaccessible to get the NUMA faulting information). Otherwise the COW simplification wouldn't matter - since doing the GUP on the page would make sure it's writable. The cause of that permission change would be good to figure out too, since it clearly results in spurious COW events - but fixing the nonsensical test that just happened to work before is obviously the CorrectThing(tm) to do regardless.

UnknownCVSS not scoredNot KEV-listedUpdated
Glexia's TakeAutomated analysismoderate

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2022-48797 is a Linux kernel memory-management flaw. Under specific NUMA balancing, copy-on-write, GUP-pinned memory, and device DMA conditions, it caused data corruption in a reported accelerator workload. The source bundle does not show active exploitation or CVSS severity.

Executive priority

Treat as a targeted reliability and integrity risk, not an emergency internet-scale exposure based on current sources. Patch during normal kernel maintenance, with faster handling for accelerator, HPC, or DMA-heavy production systems.

Technical view

The kernel fix changes NUMA-balancing eligibility from page_mapcount() to page_count() in change_pte_range(), avoiding NUMA migration/protection of COW pages with other references such as GUP pins. The issue was traced to commit 09854ba94c6a and fixed in listed stable commits.

Likely exposure

Most relevant to Linux hosts using NUMA balancing with workloads that pin user pages for device DMA, such as accelerator or high-performance I/O environments. General Linux systems may be affected by version, but practical exposure appears workload-dependent based on the provided evidence.

Exploitation context

No active exploitation is cited, and KEV is false. The public description frames this as corruption observed during a Gaudi accelerator test load, not as a documented attacker exploitation path.

Researcher notes

Evidence is limited to the CVE description and kernel stable references. The root permission-change behavior is noted as not fully explained in the description, so validation should focus on kernel lineage, NUMA balancing, GUP pins, and DMA workloads.

Mitigation direction

  • Update to a Linux kernel containing the referenced stable fixes.
  • Prioritize hosts using NUMA balancing with GUP-pinned DMA workloads.
  • Check Linux distribution advisories for packaged fixed kernel versions.
  • As a temporary control, evaluate disabling NUMA balancing or using process affinity.
  • Validate temporary controls with workload owners before production rollout.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory Linux kernel versions across NUMA-capable systems.
  • Identify workloads using accelerators, DMA, or GUP-pinned memory paths.
  • Confirm whether vendor kernels include one of the referenced stable commits.
  • Review logs or workload reports for unexplained data corruption.
  • Run regression tests for affected accelerator or DMA-heavy workloads after patching.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
6

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Unknown
CVSS
Not scored
Known Exploited
No
Published
Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

0CVSS vectors
3Timeline events
2ADP providers
5Source links

SSVC decision data

CISA-ADPCISA Coordinator
Timestamp
Version
2.0.3
Exploitation: noneAutomatable: noTechnical Impact: partial

Vulnerability timeline

Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.

  1. CVE reservedCVE Program

    The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.

  2. CVE publishedCVE Program

    The CVE record was published.

  3. CVE updatedCVE Program

    The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.

ADP provider summaries

CVECVE Program Container
CISA-ADPCISA ADP Vulnrichment
other:ssvc
Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
LinuxLinux09854ba94c6aad7886996bfbee2530b3d8a7f4f4, 09854ba94c6aad7886996bfbee2530b3d8a7f4f4, 09854ba94c6aad7886996bfbee2530b3d8a7f4f4, 09854ba94c6aad7886996bfbee2530b3d8a7f4f4unaffected
LinuxLinux5.9, 0, 5.10.102, 5.15.25, 5.16.11, 5.17affected
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

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