CVE-2022-50288 qlcnic: prevent ->dcb use-after-free on qlcnic_dcb_enable() failure
A use-after-free vulnerability in the qlcnic network driver allows attackers to potentially execute code or escalate privileges via memory corruption.
- 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-2022-50288?
CVE-2022-50288 is a medium-severity use after free 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:
qlcnic: prevent ->dcb use-after-free on qlcnic_dcb_enable() failure
adapter->dcb would get silently freed inside qlcnic_dcb_enable() in case qlcnic_dcb_attach() would return an error, which always happens under OOM conditions. This would lead to use-after-free because both of the existing callers invoke qlcnic_dcb_get_info() on the obtained pointer, which is potentially freed at that point.
Propagate errors from qlcnic_dcb_enable(), and instead free the dcb pointer at callsite using qlcnic_dcb_free(). This also removes the now unused qlcnic_clear_dcb_ops() helper, which was a simple wrapper around kfree() also causing memory leaks for partially initialized dcb.
Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with the SVACE static analysis tool.
Weakness: CWE-416
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50288?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-50288?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.
Is CVE-2022-50288 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50288 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50288, GHSA-rqx9-pg4r-6qm3, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50288.