# CVE-2022-50381: md: fix a crash in mempool_free

> A race condition in the Linux kernel's md driver causes a crash when freeing memory pools, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 Sep 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50381, GHSA-qr3p-w2mh-mg9q, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50381

## What is CVE-2022-50381?

CVE-2022-50381 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 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:

md: fix a crash in mempool_free

There's a crash in mempool_free when running the lvm test
shell/lvchange-rebuild-raid.sh.

The reason for the crash is this:
* super_written calls atomic_dec_and_test(&mddev->pending_writes) and
  wake_up(&mddev->sb_wait). Then it calls rdev_dec_pending(rdev, mddev)
  and bio_put(bio).
* so, the process that waited on sb_wait and that is woken up is racing
  with bio_put(bio).
* if the process wins the race, it calls bioset_exit before bio_put(bio)
  is executed.
* bio_put(bio) attempts to free a bio into a destroyed bio set - causing
  a crash in mempool_free.

We fix this bug by moving bio_put before atomic_dec_and_test.

We also move rdev_dec_pending before atomic_dec_and_test as suggested by
Neil Brown.

The function md_end_flush has a similar bug - we must call bio_put before
we decrement the number of in-progress bios.

 BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000
 #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode
 #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page
 PGD 11557f0067 P4D 11557f0067 PUD 0
 Oops: 0002 [#1] PREEMPT SMP
 CPU: 0 PID: 73 Comm: kworker/0:1 Not tainted 6.1.0-rc3 #5
 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.14.0-2 04/01/2014
 Workqueue: kdelayd flush_expired_bios [dm_delay]
 RIP: 0010:mempool_free+0x47/0x80
 Code: 48 89 ef 5b 5d ff e0 f3 c3 48 89 f7 e8 32 45 3f 00 48 63 53 08 48 89 c6 3b 53 04 7d 2d 48 8b 43 10 8d 4a 01 48 89 df 89 4b 08 <48> 89 2c d0 e8 b0 45 3f 00 48 8d 7b 30 5b 5d 31 c9 ba 01 00 00 00
 RSP: 0018:ffff88910036bda8 EFLAGS: 00010093
 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff8891037b65d8 RCX: 0000000000000001
 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000202 RDI: ffff8891037b65d8
 RBP: ffff8891447ba240 R08: 0000000000012908 R09: 00000000003d0900
 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000173544 R12: ffff889101a14000
 R13: ffff8891562ac300 R14: ffff889102b41440 R15: ffffe8ffffa00d05
 FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88942fa00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
 CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
 CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 0000001102e99000 CR4: 00000000000006b0
 Call Trace:
  <TASK>
  clone_endio+0xf4/0x1c0 [dm_mod]
  clone_endio+0xf4/0x1c0 [dm_mod]
  __submit_bio+0x76/0x120
  submit_bio_noacct_nocheck+0xb6/0x2a0
  flush_expired_bios+0x28/0x2f [dm_delay]
  process_one_work+0x1b4/0x300
  worker_thread+0x45/0x3e0
  ? rescuer_thread+0x380/0x380
  kthread+0xc2/0x100
  ? kthread_complete_and_exit+0x20/0x20
  ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30
  </TASK>
 Modules linked in: brd dm_delay dm_raid dm_mod af_packet uvesafb cfbfillrect cfbimgblt cn cfbcopyarea fb font fbdev tun autofs4 binfmt_misc configfs ipv6 virtio_rng virtio_balloon rng_core virtio_net pcspkr net_failover failover qemu_fw_cfg button mousedev raid10 raid456 libcrc32c async_raid6_recov async_memcpy async_pq raid6_pq async_xor xor async_tx raid1 raid0 md_mod sd_mod t10_pi crc64_rocksoft crc64 virtio_scsi scsi_mod evdev psmouse bsg scsi_common [last unloaded: brd]
 CR2: 0000000000000000
 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50381?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-50381?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-50381 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50381 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-2022-50381 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-50381 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Sep 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50381 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-2022-50381/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50381/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-50381
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-50381
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-50381

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50381/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.