CVE-2022-50188 drm/meson: Fix refcount leak in meson_encoder_hdmi_init
A missing put_device call in the Linux kernel's meson HDMI encoder driver causes a reference count leak, potentially leading to resource exhaustion and denial of service.
- 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-2022-50188?
CVE-2022-50188 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:
drm/meson: Fix refcount leak in meson_encoder_hdmi_init
of_find_device_by_node() takes reference, we should use put_device() to release it when not need anymore. Add missing put_device() in error path to avoid refcount leak.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50188?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-50188?
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-2022-50188 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50188 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50188, GHSA-72vc-pppc-m8gr, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50188.