# CVE-2022-50078: tracing/eprobes: Do not allow eprobes to use $stack, or % for regs

> A local attacker can cause a kernel crash by using invalid register references in event probes, leading to a denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 Jun 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50078, GHSA-m974-q7mp-wv4j, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50078

## What is CVE-2022-50078?

CVE-2022-50078 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:

tracing/eprobes: Do not allow eprobes to use $stack, or % for regs

While playing with event probes (eprobes), I tried to see what would
happen if I attempted to retrieve the instruction pointer (%rip) knowing
that event probes do not use pt_regs. The result was:

 BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000024
 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
 #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
 PGD 0 P4D 0
 Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI
 CPU: 1 PID: 1847 Comm: trace-cmd Not tainted 5.19.0-rc5-test+ #309
 Hardware name: Hewlett-Packard HP Compaq Pro 6300 SFF/339A, BIOS K01
v03.03 07/14/2016
 RIP: 0010:get_event_field.isra.0+0x0/0x50
 Code: ff 48 c7 c7 c0 8f 74 a1 e8 3d 8b f5 ff e8 88 09 f6 ff 4c 89 e7 e8
50 6a 13 00 48 89 ef 5b 5d 41 5c 41 5d e9 42 6a 13 00 66 90 <48> 63 47 24
8b 57 2c 48 01 c6 8b 47 28 83 f8 02 74 0e 83 f8 04 74
 RSP: 0018:ffff916c394bbaf0 EFLAGS: 00010086
 RAX: ffff916c854041d8 RBX: ffff916c8d9fbf50 RCX: ffff916c255d2000
 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffff916c255d2008 RDI: 0000000000000000
 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: ffff916c3a2a0c08 R09: ffff916c394bbda8
 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff916c854041d8
 R13: ffff916c854041b0 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000
 FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff916c9ea40000(0000)
knlGS:0000000000000000
 CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
 CR2: 0000000000000024 CR3: 000000011b60a002 CR4: 00000000001706e0
 Call Trace:
  <TASK>
  get_eprobe_size+0xb4/0x640
  ? __mod_node_page_state+0x72/0xc0
  __eprobe_trace_func+0x59/0x1a0
  ? __mod_lruvec_page_state+0xaa/0x1b0
  ? page_remove_file_rmap+0x14/0x230
  ? page_remove_rmap+0xda/0x170
  event_triggers_call+0x52/0xe0
  trace_event_buffer_commit+0x18f/0x240
  trace_event_raw_event_sched_wakeup_template+0x7a/0xb0
  try_to_wake_up+0x260/0x4c0
  __wake_up_common+0x80/0x180
  __wake_up_common_lock+0x7c/0xc0
  do_notify_parent+0x1c9/0x2a0
  exit_notify+0x1a9/0x220
  do_exit+0x2ba/0x450
  do_group_exit+0x2d/0x90
  __x64_sys_exit_group+0x14/0x20
  do_syscall_64+0x3b/0x90
  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0

Obviously this is not the desired result.

Move the testing for TPARG_FL_TPOINT which is only used for event probes
to the top of the "$" variable check, as all the other variables are not
used for event probes. Also add a check in the register parsing "%" to
fail if an event probe is used.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50078?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-50078?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-50078 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50078 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-50078 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-50078 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50078 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50078/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50078/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-50078
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-50078
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-50078

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50078/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.