linux — security advisory
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: exec: Force single empty string when argv is empty Quoting[1] Ariadne Conill: "In several other operating systems, it is a hard requirement that the second argument to execve(2) be the name of a program, thus prohibiting a scenario where argc < 1. POSIX 2017 also recommends this behaviour, but it is not an explicit requirement[2]: The argument arg0 should point to a filename string that is associated with the process being started by one of the exec functions. ... Interestingly, Michael Kerrisk opened an issue about this in 2008[3], but there was no consensus to support fixing this issue then. Hopefully now that CVE-2021-4034 shows practical exploitative use[4] of this bug in a shellcode, we can reconsider. This issue is being tracked in the KSPP issue tracker[5]." While the initial code searches[6][7] turned up what appeared to be mostly corner case tests, trying to that just reject argv == NULL (or an immediately terminated pointer list) quickly started tripping[8] existing userspace programs. The next best approach is forcing a single empty string into argv and adjusting argc to match. The number of programs depending on argc == 0 seems a smaller set than those calling execve with a NULL argv. Account for the additional stack space in bprm_stack_limits(). Inject an empty string when argc == 0 (and set argc = 1). Warn about the case so userspace has some notice about the change: process './argc0' launched '
- Products
- linux
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- 5.17.3-1
- CVEs
- CVE-2022-49264
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 30 Oct 2026, 15:28 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: exec: Force single empty string when argv is empty Quoting[1] Ariadne Conill: "In several other operating systems, it is a hard requirement that the second argument to execve(2) be the name of a program, thus prohibiting a scenario where argc < 1. POSIX 2017 also recommends this behaviour, but it is not an explicit requirement[2]: The argument arg0 should point to a filename string that is associated with the process being started by one of the exec functions. ... Interestingly, Michael Kerrisk opened an issue about this in 2008[3], but there was no consensus to support fixing this issue then. Hopefully now that CVE-2021-4034 shows practical exploitative use[4] of this bug in a shellcode, we can reconsider. This issue is being tracked in the KSPP issue tracker[5]." While the initial code searches[6][7] turned up what appeared to be mostly corner case tests, trying to that just reject argv == NULL (or an immediately terminated pointer list) quickly started tripping[8] existing userspace programs. The next best approach is forcing a single empty string into argv and adjusting argc to match. The number of programs depending on argc == 0 seems a smaller set than those calling execve with a NULL argv. Account for the additional stack space in bprm_stack_limits(). Inject an empty string when argc == 0 (and set argc = 1). Warn about the case so userspace has some notice about the change: process './argc0' launched '
osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49264
linux
Fixed versions: 5.17.3-1
linux
Fixed versions: 5.17.3-1
linux
Fixed versions: 5.17.3-1
Complete source record
{
"id": "7ef114554e725cd7e1a0c0491434ae4c64186441b2bd5979df67955572e242b6",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49264",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49264",
"summary": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: exec: Force single empty string when argv is empty Quoting[1] Ariadne Conill: \"In several other operating systems, it is a hard requirement that the second argument to execve(2) be the name of a program, thus prohibiting a scenario where argc < 1. POSIX 2017 also recommends this behaviour, but it is not an explicit requirement[2]: The argument arg0 should point to a filename string that is associated with the process being started by one of the exec functions. ... Interestingly, Michael Kerrisk opened an issue about this in 2008[3], but there was no consensus to support fixing this issue then. Hopefully now that CVE-2021-4034 shows practical exploitative use[4] of this bug in a shellcode, we can reconsider. This issue is being tracked in the KSPP issue tracker[5].\" While the initial code searches[6][7] turned up what appeared to be mostly corner case tests, trying to that just reject argv == NULL (or an immediately terminated pointer list) quickly started tripping[8] existing userspace programs. The next best approach is forcing a single empty string into argv and adjusting argc to match. The number of programs depending on argc == 0 seems a smaller set than those calling execve with a NULL argv. Account for the additional stack space in bprm_stack_limits(). Inject an empty string when argc == 0 (and set argc = 1). Warn about the case so userspace has some notice about the change: process './argc0' launched '",
"evidence": "osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49264",
"products": [
{
"name": {
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"evidence": "/affected/0/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
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"evidence": "/affected/0/ranges"
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"affected_versions": []
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{
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"severity": "medium",
"structured": {
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"aliases": [
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],
"metrics": [
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"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
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"events": [
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{
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"package": {
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"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/linux?arch=source&distro=bookworm",
"ecosystem": "Debian:12"
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"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49264.json"
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"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "not yet assigned"
}
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{
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"package": {
"name": "linux",
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"ecosystem": "Debian:13"
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"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49264.json"
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{
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"package": {
"name": "linux",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/linux?arch=source&distro=forky",
"ecosystem": "Debian:14"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49264.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "not yet assigned"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-15T08:03:03.003647008Z",
"provider": "osv",
"upstream": [
"CVE-2022-49264"
],
"references": [
"https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-49264"
]
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2022-49264",
"evidence": "/upstream"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 324968,
"published_at": "2025-02-26T07:01:03.337+00:00"
}