# CVE-2022-50224: KVM: x86/mmu: Treat NX as a valid SPTE bit for NPT

> A guest VM can trigger a kernel warning and potential denial of service in the Linux KVM module when NX huge page mitigation is enabled on AMD hardware.

- **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:** AZL-70468, DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50224, GHSA-74p4-jx54-j5rv, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2022-50224, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2022-50224, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50224

## What is CVE-2022-50224?

CVE-2022-50224 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:

KVM: x86/mmu: Treat NX as a valid SPTE bit for NPT

Treat the NX bit as valid when using NPT, as KVM will set the NX bit when
the NX huge page mitigation is enabled (mindblowing) and trigger the WARN
that fires on reserved SPTE bits being set.

KVM has required NX support for SVM since commit b26a71a1a5b9 ("KVM: SVM:
Refuse to load kvm_amd if NX support is not available") for exactly this
reason, but apparently it never occurred to anyone to actually test NPT
with the mitigation enabled.

  ------------[ cut here ]------------
  spte = 0x800000018a600ee7, level = 2, rsvd bits = 0x800f0000001fe000
  WARNING: CPU: 152 PID: 15966 at arch/x86/kvm/mmu/spte.c:215 make_spte+0x327/0x340 [kvm]
  Hardware name: Google, Inc. Arcadia_IT_80/Arcadia_IT_80, BIOS 10.48.0 01/27/2022
  RIP: 0010:make_spte+0x327/0x340 [kvm]
  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   tdp_mmu_map_handle_target_level+0xc3/0x230 [kvm]
   kvm_tdp_mmu_map+0x343/0x3b0 [kvm]
   direct_page_fault+0x1ae/0x2a0 [kvm]
   kvm_tdp_page_fault+0x7d/0x90 [kvm]
   kvm_mmu_page_fault+0xfb/0x2e0 [kvm]
   npf_interception+0x55/0x90 [kvm_amd]
   svm_invoke_exit_handler+0x31/0xf0 [kvm_amd]
   svm_handle_exit+0xf6/0x1d0 [kvm_amd]
   vcpu_enter_guest+0xb6d/0xee0 [kvm]
   ? kvm_pmu_trigger_event+0x6d/0x230 [kvm]
   vcpu_run+0x65/0x2c0 [kvm]
   kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x355/0x610 [kvm]
   kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x551/0x610 [kvm]
   __se_sys_ioctl+0x77/0xc0
   __x64_sys_ioctl+0x1d/0x20
   do_syscall_64+0x44/0xa0
   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0
   </TASK>
  ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50224?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-50224?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-50224 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50224 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-2022-50224 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-50224 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-2022-50224 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-2022-50224/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50224/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-50224
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-50224
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-50224

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50224/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.