CVE-2022-50297 wifi: ath9k: verify the expected usb_endpoints are present
A malicious USB device can cause a kernel crash in the ath9k driver by providing unexpected endpoint configurations, leading to 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-2022-50297?
CVE-2022-50297 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:
wifi: ath9k: verify the expected usb_endpoints are present
The bug arises when a USB device claims to be an ATH9K but doesn't have the expected endpoints. (In this case there was an interrupt endpoint where the driver expected a bulk endpoint.) The kernel needs to be able to handle such devices without getting an internal error.
usb 1-1: BOGUS urb xfer, pipe 3 != type 1 WARNING: CPU: 3 PID: 500 at drivers/usb/core/urb.c:493 usb_submit_urb+0xce2/0x1430 drivers/usb/core/urb.c:493 Modules linked in: CPU: 3 PID: 500 Comm: kworker/3:2 Not tainted 5.10.135-syzkaller #0 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.12.0-1 04/01/2014 Workqueue: events request_firmware_work_func RIP: 0010:usb_submit_urb+0xce2/0x1430 drivers/usb/core/urb.c:493 Call Trace: ath9k_hif_usb_alloc_rx_urbs drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/hif_usb.c:908 [inline] ath9k_hif_usb_alloc_urbs+0x75e/0x1010 drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/hif_usb.c:1019 ath9k_hif_usb_dev_init drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/hif_usb.c:1109 [inline] ath9k_hif_usb_firmware_cb+0x142/0x530 drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/hif_usb.c:1242 request_firmware_work_func+0x12e/0x240 drivers/base/firmware_loader/main.c:1097 process_one_work+0x9af/0x1600 kernel/workqueue.c:2279 worker_thread+0x61d/0x12f0 kernel/workqueue.c:2425 kthread+0x3b4/0x4a0 kernel/kthread.c:313 ret_from_fork+0x22/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:299
Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50297?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-50297?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2022-50297 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50297 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as GHSA-875w-rw5x-m6vf, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50297.