CVE-2022-50331 wwan_hwsim: fix possible memory leak in wwan_hwsim_dev_new()
A memory leak in the Linux kernel wwan_hwsim driver allows attackers to cause denial of service by triggering a specific error path during module probing.
- 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-2022-50331?
CVE-2022-50331 is a medium-severity memory corruption 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:
wwan_hwsim: fix possible memory leak in wwan_hwsim_dev_new()
Inject fault while probing module, if device_register() fails, but the refcount of kobject is not decreased to 0, the name allocated in dev_set_name() is leaked. Fix this by calling put_device(), so that name can be freed in callback function kobject_cleanup().
unreferenced object 0xffff88810152ad20 (size 8): comm "modprobe", pid 252, jiffies 4294849206 (age 22.713s) hex dump (first 8 bytes): 68 77 73 69 6d 30 00 ff hwsim0.. backtrace: [<000000009c3504ed>] __kmalloc_node_track_caller+0x44/0x1b0 [<00000000c0228a5e>] kvasprintf+0xb5/0x140 [<00000000cff8c21f>] kvasprintf_const+0x55/0x180 [<0000000055a1e073>] kobject_set_name_vargs+0x56/0x150 [<000000000a80b139>] dev_set_name+0xab/0xe0
Weakness: CWE-401
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50331?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-50331?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2022-50331 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50331 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50331, GHSA-2wr3-6ffm-mq44, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50331.