CVE-2022-50063 net: dsa: felix: suppress non-changes to the tagging protocol
A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's felix DSA driver allows local attackers to crash the system by triggering a specific tagging protocol error.
- 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-2022-50063?
CVE-2022-50063 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:
net: dsa: felix: suppress non-changes to the tagging protocol
The way in which dsa_tree_change_tag_proto() works is that when dsa_tree_notify() fails, it doesn't know whether the operation failed mid way in a multi-switch tree, or it failed for a single-switch tree. So even though drivers need to fail cleanly in ds->ops->change_tag_protocol(), DSA will still call dsa_tree_notify() again, to restore the old tag protocol for potential switches in the tree where the change did succeeed (before failing for others).
This means for the felix driver that if we report an error in felix_change_tag_protocol(), we'll get another call where proto_ops == old_proto_ops. If we proceed to act upon that, we may do unexpected things. For example, we will call dsa_tag_8021q_register() twice in a row, without any dsa_tag_8021q_unregister() in between. Then we will actually call dsa_tag_8021q_unregister() via old_proto_ops->teardown, which (if it manages to run at all, after walking through corrupted data structures) will leave the ports inoperational anyway.
The bug can be readily reproduced if we force an error while in tag_8021q mode; this crashes the kernel.
echo ocelot-8021q > /sys/class/net/eno2/dsa/tagging echo edsa > /sys/class/net/eno2/dsa/tagging # -EPROTONOSUPPORT
Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000014 Call trace: vcap_entry_get+0x24/0x124 ocelot_vcap_filter_del+0x198/0x270 felix_tag_8021q_vlan_del+0xd4/0x21c dsa_switch_tag_8021q_vlan_del+0x168/0x2cc dsa_switch_event+0x68/0x1170 dsa_tree_notify+0x14/0x34 dsa_port_tag_8021q_vlan_del+0x84/0x110 dsa_tag_8021q_unregister+0x15c/0x1c0 felix_tag_8021q_teardown+0x16c/0x180 felix_change_tag_protocol+0x1bc/0x230 dsa_switch_event+0x14c/0x1170 dsa_tree_change_tag_proto+0x118/0x1c0
Weakness: CWE-476
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50063?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-50063?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2022-50063 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50063 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50063, GHSA-vhwp-83w8-m7pm, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50063.