CVE-2022-50356 net: sched: sfb: fix null pointer access issue when sfb_init() fails

Medium 5.5 Published Updated

A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's sfb qdisc allows local attackers to cause a system crash when initialization fails.

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-2022-50356?

CVE-2022-50356 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 17 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:

net: sched: sfb: fix null pointer access issue when sfb_init() fails

When the default qdisc is sfb, if the qdisc of dev_queue fails to be inited during mqprio_init(), sfb_reset() is invoked to clear resources. In this case, the q->qdisc is NULL, and it will cause gpf issue.

The process is as follows: qdisc_create_dflt() sfb_init() tcf_block_get() --->failed, q->qdisc is NULL ... qdisc_put() ... sfb_reset() qdisc_reset(q->qdisc) --->q->qdisc is NULL ops = qdisc->ops

The following is the Call Trace information: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000003: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000018-0x000000000000001f] RIP: 0010:qdisc_reset+0x2b/0x6f0 Call Trace: <TASK> sfb_reset+0x37/0xd0 qdisc_reset+0xed/0x6f0 qdisc_destroy+0x82/0x4c0 qdisc_put+0x9e/0xb0 qdisc_create_dflt+0x2c3/0x4a0 mqprio_init+0xa71/0x1760 qdisc_create+0x3eb/0x1000 tc_modify_qdisc+0x408/0x1720 rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x38e/0xac0 netlink_rcv_skb+0x12d/0x3a0 netlink_unicast+0x4a2/0x740 netlink_sendmsg+0x826/0xcc0 sock_sendmsg+0xc5/0x100 ____sys_sendmsg+0x583/0x690 ___sys_sendmsg+0xe8/0x160 __sys_sendmsg+0xbf/0x160 do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0 RIP: 0033:0x7f2164122d04 </TASK>

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50356?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2022-50356?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2022-50356 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50356 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50356, GHSA-j338-p6p6-pp64, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50356.

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