CVE-2022-49287 - CVE House
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Status published Unknown CVE-2022-49287

tpm: fix reference counting for struct tpm_chip

Vulnerability Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tpm: fix reference counting for struct tpm_chip The following sequence of operations results in a refcount warning: 1. Open device /dev/tpmrm. 2. Remove module tpm_tis_spi. 3. Write a TPM command to the file descriptor opened at step 1. ------------[ cut here ]------------ WARNING: CPU: 3 PID: 1161 at lib/refcount.c:25 kobject_get+0xa0/0xa4 refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free. Modules linked in: tpm_tis_spi tpm_tis_core tpm mdio_bcm_unimac brcmfmac sha256_generic libsha256 sha256_arm hci_uart btbcm bluetooth cfg80211 vc4 brcmutil ecdh_generic ecc snd_soc_core crc32_arm_ce libaes raspberrypi_hwmon ac97_bus snd_pcm_dmaengine bcm2711_thermal snd_pcm snd_timer genet snd phy_generic soundcore [last unloaded: spi_bcm2835] CPU: 3 PID: 1161 Comm: hold_open Not tainted 5.10.0ls-main-dirty #2 Hardware name: BCM2711 [<c0410c3c>] (unwind_backtrace) from [<c040b580>] (show_stack+0x10/0x14) [<c040b580>] (show_stack) from [<c1092174>] (dump_stack+0xc4/0xd8) [<c1092174>] (dump_stack) from [<c0445a30>] (__warn+0x104/0x108) [<c0445a30>] (__warn) from [<c0445aa8>] (warn_slowpath_fmt+0x74/0xb8) [<c0445aa8>] (warn_slowpath_fmt) from [<c08435d0>] (kobject_get+0xa0/0xa4) [<c08435d0>] (kobject_get) from [<bf0a715c>] (tpm_try_get_ops+0x14/0x54 [tpm]) [<bf0a715c>] (tpm_try_get_ops [tpm]) from [<bf0a7d6c>] (tpm_common_write+0x38/0x60 [tpm]) [<bf0a7d6c>] (tpm_common_write [tpm]) from [<c05a7ac0>] (vfs_write+0xc4/0x3c0) [<c05a7ac0>] (vfs_write) from [<c05a7ee4>] (ksys_write+0x58/0xcc) [<c05a7ee4>] (ksys_write) from [<c04001a0>] (ret_fast_syscall+0x0/0x4c) Exception stack(0xc226bfa8 to 0xc226bff0) bfa0: 00000000 000105b4 00000003 beafe664 00000014 00000000 bfc0: 00000000 000105b4 000103f8 00000004 00000000 00000000 b6f9c000 beafe684 bfe0: 0000006c beafe648 0001056c b6eb6944 ---[ end trace d4b8409def9b8b1f ]--- The reason for this warning is the attempt to get the chip->dev reference in tpm_common_write() although the reference counter is already zero. Since commit 8979b02aaf1d ("tpm: Fix reference count to main device") the extra reference used to prevent a premature zero counter is never taken, because the required TPM_CHIP_FLAG_TPM2 flag is never set. Fix this by moving the TPM 2 character device handling from tpm_chip_alloc() to tpm_add_char_device() which is called at a later point in time when the flag has been set in case of TPM2. Commit fdc915f7f719 ("tpm: expose spaces via a device link /dev/tpmrm<n>") already introduced function tpm_devs_release() to release the extra reference but did not implement the required put on chip->devs that results in the call of this function. Fix this by putting chip->devs in tpm_chip_unregister(). Finally move the new implementation for the TPM 2 handling into a new function to avoid multiple checks for the TPM_CHIP_FLAG_TPM2 flag in the good case and error cases.

Impact Analysis

Refer to official advisory for detailed impact metrics.

Remediation

Ensure systems are updated to the latest vendor-supplied patch levels.

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Credits & Attribution

No credits recorded in the NVD database.

Affected Vendor

Affected Software

Linux
Vulnerable Versions:
fdc915f7f71939ad5a3dda3389b8d2d7a7c5ee66, 4.12, 0, 4.14.276, 4.19.238, 5.4.189, 5.10.110, 5.15.33, 5.16.19, 5.17.1, 5.18

Timeline

Official Publish: February 26th, 2025
Last Modified: May 11th, 2026
Added to House: July 21st, 2026

CVSS Vectors

No vector data available

Weaknesses (CWE)

No CWE data available

MITRE ATT&CK TTPs

No associated TTPs found for this vulnerability.