CVE-2022-50159 of: check previous kernel's ima-kexec-buffer against memory bounds
A missing memory bounds check in the Linux kernel IMA kexec buffer handling allows a local attacker to cause a kernel panic via specific boot arguments.
- 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-2022-50159?
CVE-2022-50159 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:
of: check previous kernel's ima-kexec-buffer against memory bounds
Presently ima_get_kexec_buffer() doesn't check if the previous kernel's ima-kexec-buffer lies outside the addressable memory range. This can result in a kernel panic if the new kernel is booted with 'mem=X' arg and the ima-kexec-buffer was allocated beyond that range by the previous kernel. The panic is usually of the form below:
$ sudo kexec --initrd initrd vmlinux --append='mem=16G'
<snip> BUG: Unable to handle kernel data access on read at 0xc000c01fff7f0000 Faulting instruction address: 0xc000000000837974 Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1] <snip> NIP [c000000000837974] ima_restore_measurement_list+0x94/0x6c0 LR [c00000000083b55c] ima_load_kexec_buffer+0xac/0x160 Call Trace: [c00000000371fa80] [c00000000083b55c] ima_load_kexec_buffer+0xac/0x160 [c00000000371fb00] [c0000000020512c4] ima_init+0x80/0x108 [c00000000371fb70] [c0000000020514dc] init_ima+0x4c/0x120 [c00000000371fbf0] [c000000000012240] do_one_initcall+0x60/0x2c0 [c00000000371fcc0] [c000000002004ad0] kernel_init_freeable+0x344/0x3ec [c00000000371fda0] [c0000000000128a4] kernel_init+0x34/0x1b0 [c00000000371fe10] [c00000000000ce64] ret_from_kernel_thread+0x5c/0x64 Instruction dump: f92100b8 f92100c0 90e10090 910100a0 4182050c 282a0017 3bc00000 40810330 7c0802a6 fb610198 7c9b2378 f80101d0 <a1240000> 2c090001 40820614 e9240010 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
Fix this issue by checking returned PFN range of previous kernel's ima-kexec-buffer with page_is_ram() to ensure correct memory bounds.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50159?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-50159?
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-2022-50159 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50159 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50159, GHSA-gjjr-vrfh-q64m, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2022-50159, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50159.