CVE-2022-50282 chardev: fix error handling in cdev_device_add()
A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's chardev error handling can cause a system crash when device registration fails.
- 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-2022-50282?
CVE-2022-50282 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 15 Sep 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:
chardev: fix error handling in cdev_device_add()
While doing fault injection test, I got the following report:
------------[ cut here ]------------ kobject: '(null)' (0000000039956980): is not initialized, yet kobject_put() is being called. WARNING: CPU: 3 PID: 6306 at kobject_put+0x23d/0x4e0 CPU: 3 PID: 6306 Comm: 283 Tainted: G W 6.1.0-rc2-00005-g307c1086d7c9 #1253 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.13.0-1ubuntu1.1 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:kobject_put+0x23d/0x4e0 Call Trace: <TASK> cdev_device_add+0x15e/0x1b0 __iio_device_register+0x13b4/0x1af0 [industrialio] __devm_iio_device_register+0x22/0x90 [industrialio] max517_probe+0x3d8/0x6b4 [max517] i2c_device_probe+0xa81/0xc00
When device_add() is injected fault and returns error, if dev->devt is not set, cdev_add() is not called, cdev_del() is not needed. Fix this by checking dev->devt in error path.
Weakness: CWE-908
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50282?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-50282?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2022-50282 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50282 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50282, GHSA-3mx8-688w-x5vh, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50282.