# CVE-2022-50335: 9p: set req refcount to zero to avoid uninitialized usage > A race condition in the Linux kernel 9p filesystem allows use of uninitialized memory, potentially leading to memory corruption or crashes. - **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`) - **Exploited in the wild:** Not known - **Login needed:** Not needed - **Attackable:** Over the internet - **Victim action needed:** Not needed - **Fix available:** Yes - **Published:** 15 Sep 2025 - **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026 - **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50335, GHSA-pq2h-q77j-f595, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2022-50335, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50335 ## What is CVE-2022-50335? CVE-2022-50335 is a critical use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 15 Sep 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim. ### Official description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: 9p: set req refcount to zero to avoid uninitialized usage When a new request is allocated, the refcount will be zero if it is reused, but if the request is newly allocated from slab, it is not fully initialized before being added to idr. If the p9_read_work got a response before the refcount initiated. It will use a uninitialized req, which will result in a bad request data struct. Here is the logs from syzbot. Corrupted memory at 0xffff88807eade00b [ 0xff 0x07 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 . . . . . . . . ] (in kfence-#110): p9_fcall_fini net/9p/client.c:248 [inline] p9_req_put net/9p/client.c:396 [inline] p9_req_put+0x208/0x250 net/9p/client.c:390 p9_client_walk+0x247/0x540 net/9p/client.c:1165 clone_fid fs/9p/fid.h:21 [inline] v9fs_fid_xattr_set+0xe4/0x2b0 fs/9p/xattr.c:118 v9fs_xattr_set fs/9p/xattr.c:100 [inline] v9fs_xattr_handler_set+0x6f/0x120 fs/9p/xattr.c:159 __vfs_setxattr+0x119/0x180 fs/xattr.c:182 __vfs_setxattr_noperm+0x129/0x5f0 fs/xattr.c:216 __vfs_setxattr_locked+0x1d3/0x260 fs/xattr.c:277 vfs_setxattr+0x143/0x340 fs/xattr.c:309 setxattr+0x146/0x160 fs/xattr.c:617 path_setxattr+0x197/0x1c0 fs/xattr.c:636 __do_sys_setxattr fs/xattr.c:652 [inline] __se_sys_setxattr fs/xattr.c:648 [inline] __ia32_sys_setxattr+0xc0/0x160 fs/xattr.c:648 do_syscall_32_irqs_on arch/x86/entry/common.c:112 [inline] __do_fast_syscall_32+0x65/0xf0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:178 do_fast_syscall_32+0x33/0x70 arch/x86/entry/common.c:203 entry_SYSENTER_compat_after_hwframe+0x70/0x82 Below is a similar scenario, the scenario in the syzbot log looks more complicated than this one, but this patch can fix it. T21124 p9_read_work ======================== second trans ================================= p9_client_walk p9_client_rpc p9_client_prepare_req p9_tag_alloc req = kmem_cache_alloc(p9_req_cache, GFP_NOFS); tag = idr_alloc << preempted >> req->tc.tag = tag; /* req->[refcount/tag] == uninitialized */ m->rreq = p9_tag_lookup(m->client, m->rc.tag); /* increments uninitalized refcount */ refcount_set(&req->refcount, 2); /* cb drops one ref */ p9_client_cb(req) /* reader thread drops its ref: request is incorrectly freed */ p9_req_put(req) /* use after free and ref underflow */ p9_req_put(req) To fix it, we can initialize the refcount to zero before add to idr. Weakness: CWE-908 (Use of Uninitialized Resource) ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50335? It affects 1 product. Products: Linux kernel. ## How do I fix CVE-2022-50335? Apply the vendor's patch. ## Is CVE-2022-50335 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50335 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-2022-50335 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2022-50335 is a critical use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 15 Sep 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim. Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50335 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-2022-50335/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50335/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-50335 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-50335 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-50335 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50335/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.