# CVE-2022-50118: powerpc/perf: Optimize clearing the pending PMI and remove WARN_ON for PMI check in power_pmu_disable

> A logic error in the PowerPC performance monitoring unit driver can trigger a kernel warning, potentially leading to system instability or 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:** 23 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50118, GHSA-58fj-7xrf-2v4q, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50118

## What is CVE-2022-50118?

CVE-2022-50118 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:

powerpc/perf: Optimize clearing the pending PMI and remove WARN_ON for PMI check in power_pmu_disable

commit 2c9ac51b850d ("powerpc/perf: Fix PMU callbacks to clear
pending PMI before resetting an overflown PMC") added a new
function "pmi_irq_pending" in hw_irq.h. This function is to check
if there is a PMI marked as pending in Paca (PACA_IRQ_PMI).This is
used in power_pmu_disable in a WARN_ON. The intention here is to
provide a warning if there is PMI pending, but no counter is found
overflown.

During some of the perf runs, below warning is hit:

WARNING: CPU: 36 PID: 0 at arch/powerpc/perf/core-book3s.c:1332 power_pmu_disable+0x25c/0x2c0
 Modules linked in:
 -----

 NIP [c000000000141c3c] power_pmu_disable+0x25c/0x2c0
 LR [c000000000141c8c] power_pmu_disable+0x2ac/0x2c0
 Call Trace:
 [c000000baffcfb90] [c000000000141c8c] power_pmu_disable+0x2ac/0x2c0 (unreliable)
 [c000000baffcfc10] [c0000000003e2f8c] perf_pmu_disable+0x4c/0x60
 [c000000baffcfc30] [c0000000003e3344] group_sched_out.part.124+0x44/0x100
 [c000000baffcfc80] [c0000000003e353c] __perf_event_disable+0x13c/0x240
 [c000000baffcfcd0] [c0000000003dd334] event_function+0xc4/0x140
 [c000000baffcfd20] [c0000000003d855c] remote_function+0x7c/0xa0
 [c000000baffcfd50] [c00000000026c394] flush_smp_call_function_queue+0xd4/0x300
 [c000000baffcfde0] [c000000000065b24] smp_ipi_demux_relaxed+0xa4/0x100
 [c000000baffcfe20] [c0000000000cb2b0] xive_muxed_ipi_action+0x20/0x40
 [c000000baffcfe40] [c000000000207c3c] __handle_irq_event_percpu+0x8c/0x250
 [c000000baffcfee0] [c000000000207e2c] handle_irq_event_percpu+0x2c/0xa0
 [c000000baffcff10] [c000000000210a04] handle_percpu_irq+0x84/0xc0
 [c000000baffcff40] [c000000000205f14] generic_handle_irq+0x54/0x80
 [c000000baffcff60] [c000000000015740] __do_irq+0x90/0x1d0
 [c000000baffcff90] [c000000000016990] __do_IRQ+0xc0/0x140
 [c0000009732f3940] [c000000bafceaca8] 0xc000000bafceaca8
 [c0000009732f39d0] [c000000000016b78] do_IRQ+0x168/0x1c0
 [c0000009732f3a00] [c0000000000090c8] hardware_interrupt_common_virt+0x218/0x220

This means that there is no PMC overflown among the active events
in the PMU, but there is a PMU pending in Paca. The function
"any_pmc_overflown" checks the PMCs on active events in
cpuhw->n_events. Code snippet:

<<>>
if (any_pmc_overflown(cpuhw))
 	clear_pmi_irq_pending();
 else
 	WARN_ON(pmi_irq_pending());
<<>>

Here the PMC overflown is not from active event. Example: When we do
perf record, default cycles and instructions will be running on PMC6
and PMC5 respectively. It could happen that overflowed event is currently
not active and pending PMI is for the inactive event. Debug logs from
trace_printk:

<<>>
any_pmc_overflown: idx is 5: pmc value is 0xd9a
power_pmu_disable: PMC1: 0x0, PMC2: 0x0, PMC3: 0x0, PMC4: 0x0, PMC5: 0xd9a, PMC6: 0x80002011
<<>>

Here active PMC (from idx) is PMC5 , but overflown PMC is PMC6(0x80002011).
When we handle PMI interrupt for such cases, if the PMC overflown is
from inactive event, it will be ignored. Reference commit:
commit bc09c219b2e6 ("powerpc/perf: Fix finding overflowed PMC in interrupt")

Patch addresses two changes:
1) Fix 1 : Removal of warning ( WARN_ON(pmi_irq_pending()); )
   We were printing warning if no PMC is found overflown among active PMU
   events, but PMI pending in PACA. But this could happen in cases where
   PMC overflown is not in active PMC. An inactive event could have caused
   the overflow. Hence the warning is not needed. To know pending PMI is
   from an inactive event, we need to loop through all PMC's which will
   cause more SPR reads via mfspr and increase in context switch. Also in
   existing function: perf_event_interrupt, already we ignore PMI's
   overflown when it is from an inactive PMC.

2) Fix 2: optimization in clearing pending PMI.
   Currently we check for any active PMC overflown before clearing PMI
   pending in Paca. This is causing additional SP
---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-674 (Uncontrolled Recursion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50118?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-50118?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-50118 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50118 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-2022-50118 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-50118 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50118 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-2022-50118/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50118/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-50118
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-50118
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-50118

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50118/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.