CVE-2022-48661

What it actually does

A memory leak occurs in the gpio-mockup driver when software node creation fails during chip registration, leaving an allocated string array unfreed.

Why it matters to the business

Systems relying on GPIO mockup functionality may experience gradual memory exhaustion, potentially leading to system instability or denial of service conditions in long-running environments.

How an attack unfolds

An attacker with local privileges triggers repeated failures in software node creation within the gpio mockup registration path to accumulate unfreed memory allocations.

How to fix it

Update the Linux kernel to include commit 9b26723e058faaf11b532fb4aa16d6849d581790 or later stable releases containing the fix.

How to confirm the fix worked

Verify the fix commit is present in the running kernel source tree or confirm updated kernel packages have been installed and rebooted.

Typical attack path

1. Obtain local access to the system
2. Interact with gpio-mockup driver to cause software node creation failure
3. Repeat the action to exhaust kernel memory resources

How to detect it

Review kernel logs for gpio-mockup registration error paths and track overall system memory consumption for unexpected leaks after driver initialization attempts.

What your security team should do

• Apply the kernel update containing the referenced fix commit promptly
• Monitor memory usage on systems using gpio-mockup for unexplained growth
• Disable or avoid gpio-mockup functionality until systems are patched