CVE-2022-50045 powerpc/pci: Fix get_phb_number() locking
A locking bug in the Linux kernel's PowerPC PCI subsystem can cause a kernel panic during boot, leading to denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2022-50045?
CVE-2022-50045 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Jun 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
powerpc/pci: Fix get_phb_number() locking
The recent change to get_phb_number() causes a DEBUG_ATOMIC_SLEEP warning on some systems:
BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/mutex.c:580 in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 1, name: swapper preempt_count: 1, expected: 0 RCU nest depth: 0, expected: 0 1 lock held by swapper/1: #0: c157efb0 (hose_spinlock){+.+.}-{2:2}, at: pcibios_alloc_controller+0x64/0x220 Preemption disabled at: [<00000000>] 0x0 CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper Not tainted 5.19.0-yocto-standard+ #1 Call Trace: [d101dc90] [c073b264] dump_stack_lvl+0x50/0x8c (unreliable) [d101dcb0] [c0093b70] __might_resched+0x258/0x2a8 [d101dcd0] [c0d3e634] __mutex_lock+0x6c/0x6ec [d101dd50] [c0a84174] of_alias_get_id+0x50/0xf4 [d101dd80] [c002ec78] pcibios_alloc_controller+0x1b8/0x220 [d101ddd0] [c140c9dc] pmac_pci_init+0x198/0x784 [d101de50] [c140852c] discover_phbs+0x30/0x4c [d101de60] [c0007fd4] do_one_initcall+0x94/0x344 [d101ded0] [c1403b40] kernel_init_freeable+0x1a8/0x22c [d101df10] [c00086e0] kernel_init+0x34/0x160 [d101df30] [c001b334] ret_from_kernel_thread+0x5c/0x64
This is because pcibios_alloc_controller() holds hose_spinlock but of_alias_get_id() takes of_mutex which can sleep.
The hose_spinlock protects the phb_bitmap, and also the hose_list, but it doesn't need to be held while get_phb_number() calls the OF routines, because those are only looking up information in the device tree.
So fix it by having get_phb_number() take the hose_spinlock itself, only where required, and then dropping the lock before returning. pcibios_alloc_controller() then needs to take the lock again before the list_add() but that's safe, the order of the list is not important.
Weakness: CWE-667
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50045?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-50045?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2022-50045 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50045 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50045, GHSA-752v-r57r-j98p, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50045.