CVE-2022-50053 iavf: Fix reset error handling

Medium 5.5 Published 18 Jun 2025 Updated 11 May 2026

A flaw in the iavf driver's reset error handling can cause a deadlock, leading to a denial of service when removing virtual functions.

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-2022-50053?

CVE-2022-50053 is a medium-severity denial of service 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:

iavf: Fix reset error handling

Do not call iavf_close in iavf_reset_task error handling. Doing so can lead to double call of napi_disable, which can lead to deadlock there. Removing VF would lead to iavf_remove task being stuck, because it requires crit_lock, which is held by iavf_close. Call iavf_disable_vf if reset fail, so that driver will clean up remaining invalid resources. During rapid VF resets, HW can fail to setup VF mailbox. Wrong error handling can lead to iavf_remove being stuck with: [ 5218.999087] iavf 0000:82:01.0: Failed to init adminq: -53 ... [ 5267.189211] INFO: task repro.sh:11219 blocked for more than 30 seconds. [ 5267.189520] Tainted: G S E 5.18.0-04958-ga54ce3703613-dirty #1 [ 5267.189764] "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message. [ 5267.190062] task:repro.sh state:D stack: 0 pid:11219 ppid: 8162 flags:0x00000000 [ 5267.190347] Call Trace: [ 5267.190647] <TASK> [ 5267.190927] __schedule+0x460/0x9f0 [ 5267.191264] schedule+0x44/0xb0 [ 5267.191563] schedule_preempt_disabled+0x14/0x20 [ 5267.191890] __mutex_lock.isra.12+0x6e3/0xac0 [ 5267.192237] ? iavf_remove+0xf9/0x6c0 [iavf] [ 5267.192565] iavf_remove+0x12a/0x6c0 [iavf] [ 5267.192911] ? _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0x1e/0x40 [ 5267.193285] pci_device_remove+0x36/0xb0 [ 5267.193619] device_release_driver_internal+0xc1/0x150 [ 5267.193974] pci_stop_bus_device+0x69/0x90 [ 5267.194361] pci_stop_and_remove_bus_device+0xe/0x20 [ 5267.194735] pci_iov_remove_virtfn+0xba/0x120 [ 5267.195130] sriov_disable+0x2f/0xe0 [ 5267.195506] ice_free_vfs+0x7d/0x2f0 [ice] [ 5267.196056] ? pci_get_device+0x4f/0x70 [ 5267.196496] ice_sriov_configure+0x78/0x1a0 [ice] [ 5267.196995] sriov_numvfs_store+0xfe/0x140 [ 5267.197466] kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x12e/0x1c0 [ 5267.197918] new_sync_write+0x10c/0x190 [ 5267.198404] vfs_write+0x24e/0x2d0 [ 5267.198886] ksys_write+0x5c/0xd0 [ 5267.199367] do_syscall_64+0x3a/0x80 [ 5267.199827] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0 [ 5267.200317] RIP: 0033:0x7f5b381205c8 [ 5267.200814] RSP: 002b:00007fff8c7e8c78 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000001 [ 5267.201981] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000002 RCX: 00007f5b381205c8 [ 5267.202620] RDX: 0000000000000002 RSI: 00005569420ee900 RDI: 0000000000000001 [ 5267.203426] RBP: 00005569420ee900 R08: 000000000000000a R09: 00007f5b38180820 [ 5267.204327] R10: 000000000000000a R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 00007f5b383c06e0 [ 5267.205193] R13: 0000000000000002 R14: 00007f5b383bb880 R15: 0000000000000002 [ 5267.206041] </TASK> [ 5267.206970] Kernel panic - not syncing: hung_task: blocked tasks [ 5267.207809] CPU: 48 PID: 551 Comm: khungtaskd Kdump: loaded Tainted: G S E 5.18.0-04958-ga54ce3703613-dirty #1 [ 5267.208726] Hardware name: Dell Inc. PowerEdge R730/0WCJNT, BIOS 2.11.0 11/02/2019 [ 5267.209623] Call Trace: [ 5267.210569] <TASK> [ 5267.211480] dump_stack_lvl+0x33/0x42 [ 5267.212472] panic+0x107/0x294 [ 5267.213467] watchdog.cold.8+0xc/0xbb [ 5267.214413] ? proc_dohung_task_timeout_secs+0x30/0x30 [ 5267.215511] kthread+0xf4/0x120 [ 5267.216459] ? kthread_complete_and_exit+0x20/0x20 [ 5267.217505] ret_from_fork+0x22/0x30 [ 5267.218459] </TASK>

Weakness: CWE-667

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50053?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2022-50053?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2022-50053 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50053 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50053, GHSA-fff7-r5fr-892q, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2022-50053, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50053.