CVE-2022-50342 floppy: Fix memory leak in do_floppy_init()
A memory leak in the Linux kernel floppy driver allows local attackers to exhaust system memory, potentially causing a 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-2022-50342?
CVE-2022-50342 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 16 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:
floppy: Fix memory leak in do_floppy_init()
A memory leak was reported when floppy_alloc_disk() failed in do_floppy_init().
unreferenced object 0xffff888115ed25a0 (size 8): comm "modprobe", pid 727, jiffies 4295051278 (age 25.529s) hex dump (first 8 bytes): 00 ac 67 5b 81 88 ff ff ..g[.... backtrace: [<000000007f457abb>] __kmalloc_node+0x4c/0xc0 [<00000000a87bfa9e>] blk_mq_realloc_tag_set_tags.part.0+0x6f/0x180 [<000000006f02e8b1>] blk_mq_alloc_tag_set+0x573/0x1130 [<0000000066007fd7>] 0xffffffffc06b8b08 [<0000000081f5ac40>] do_one_initcall+0xd0/0x4f0 [<00000000e26d04ee>] do_init_module+0x1a4/0x680 [<000000001bb22407>] load_module+0x6249/0x7110 [<00000000ad31ac4d>] __do_sys_finit_module+0x140/0x200 [<000000007bddca46>] do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80 [<00000000b5afec39>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0 unreferenced object 0xffff88810fc30540 (size 32): comm "modprobe", pid 727, jiffies 4295051278 (age 25.529s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: [<000000007f457abb>] __kmalloc_node+0x4c/0xc0 [<000000006b91eab4>] blk_mq_alloc_tag_set+0x393/0x1130 [<0000000066007fd7>] 0xffffffffc06b8b08 [<0000000081f5ac40>] do_one_initcall+0xd0/0x4f0 [<00000000e26d04ee>] do_init_module+0x1a4/0x680 [<000000001bb22407>] load_module+0x6249/0x7110 [<00000000ad31ac4d>] __do_sys_finit_module+0x140/0x200 [<000000007bddca46>] do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80 [<00000000b5afec39>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0
If the floppy_alloc_disk() failed, disks of current drive will not be set, thus the lastest allocated set->tag cannot be freed in the error handling path. A simple call graph shown as below:
floppy_module_init() floppy_init() do_floppy_init() for (drive = 0; drive < N_DRIVE; drive++) blk_mq_alloc_tag_set() blk_mq_alloc_tag_set_tags() blk_mq_realloc_tag_set_tags() # set->tag allocated floppy_alloc_disk() blk_mq_alloc_disk() # error occurred, disks failed to allocated
->out_put_disk: for (drive = 0; drive < N_DRIVE; drive++) if (!disks[drive][0]) # the last disks is not set and loop break break; blk_mq_free_tag_set() # the latest allocated set->tag leaked
Fix this problem by free the set->tag of current drive before jump to error handling path.
[efremov: added stable list, changed title]
Weakness: CWE-401
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50342?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-50342?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2022-50342 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50342 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50342, GHSA-86r4-3x7h-8gh4, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50342.