CVE-2022-48769

MEDIUM

Linux Kernel - Denial of Service via EFIv2 Runtime Services on Apple x86 Machines

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: efi: runtime: avoid EFIv2 runtime services on Apple x86 machines Aditya reports [0] that his recent MacbookPro crashes in the firmware when using the variable services at runtime. The culprit appears to be a call to QueryVariableInfo(), which we did not use to call on Apple x86 machines in the past as they only upgraded from EFI v1.10 to EFI v2.40 firmware fairly recently, and QueryVariableInfo() (along with UpdateCapsule() et al) was added in EFI v2.00. The only runtime service introduced in EFI v2.00 that we actually use in Linux is QueryVariableInfo(), as the capsule based ones are optional, generally not used at runtime (all the LVFS/fwupd firmware update infrastructure uses helper EFI programs that invoke capsule update at boot time, not runtime), and not implemented by Apple machines in the first place. QueryVariableInfo() is used to 'safely' set variables, i.e., only when there is enough space. This prevents machines with buggy firmwares from corrupting their NVRAMs when they run out of space. Given that Apple machines have been using EFI v1.10 services only for the longest time (the EFI v2.0 spec was released in 2006, and Linux support for the newly introduced runtime services was added in 2011, but the MacbookPro12,1 released in 2015 still claims to be EFI v1.10 only), let's avoid the EFI v2.0 ones on all Apple x86 machines. [0] https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/

Scores

CVSS v3 5.5
EPSS 0.0022
EPSS Percentile 12.5%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation none
Automatable no
Technical Impact partial

Details

Status published
Products (23)
linux/Kernel 3.7.0 - 5.10.96linux
linux/Kernel 5.11.0 - 5.15.19linux
linux/Kernel 5.16.0 - 5.16.5linux
Linux/Linux < 3.7
Linux/Linux 0c9673834740afdfa7c172b1b19c6b3ec5bc3907
Linux/Linux 13fcf5d1c5fe491aeb0b0f34a46d88134432edb1
Linux/Linux 3.2.32 - 3.3
Linux/Linux 3.4.14 - 3.5
Linux/Linux 3.5.7 - 3.6
Linux/Linux 3.6.2 - 3.7
... and 13 more
Published Jun 20, 2024
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026