CVE-2022-50388 nvme: fix multipath crash caused by flush request when blktrace is enabled

Medium 5.5 Published Updated

A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel NVMe driver causes a system crash when blktrace is enabled during multipath flush requests.

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-2022-50388?

CVE-2022-50388 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:

nvme: fix multipath crash caused by flush request when blktrace is enabled

The flush request initialized by blk_kick_flush has NULL bio, and it may be dealt with nvme_end_req during io completion. When blktrace is enabled, nvme_trace_bio_complete with multipath activated trying to access NULL pointer bio from flush request results in the following crash:

[ 2517.831677] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 000000000000001a [ 2517.835213] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [ 2517.838724] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [ 2517.842222] PGD 7b2d51067 P4D 0 [ 2517.845684] Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI [ 2517.849125] CPU: 2 PID: 732 Comm: kworker/2:1H Kdump: loaded Tainted: G S 5.15.67-0.cl9.x86_64 #1 [ 2517.852723] Hardware name: XFUSION 2288H V6/BC13MBSBC, BIOS 1.13 07/27/2022 [ 2517.856358] Workqueue: nvme_tcp_wq nvme_tcp_io_work [nvme_tcp] [ 2517.859993] RIP: 0010:blk_add_trace_bio_complete+0x6/0x30 [ 2517.863628] Code: 1f 44 00 00 48 8b 46 08 31 c9 ba 04 00 10 00 48 8b 80 50 03 00 00 48 8b 78 50 e9 e5 fe ff ff 0f 1f 44 00 00 41 54 49 89 f4 55 <0f> b6 7a 1a 48 89 d5 e8 3e 1c 2b 00 48 89 ee 4c 89 e7 5d 89 c1 ba [ 2517.871269] RSP: 0018:ff7f6a008d9dbcd0 EFLAGS: 00010286 [ 2517.875081] RAX: ff3d5b4be00b1d50 RBX: 0000000002040002 RCX: ff3d5b0a270f2000 [ 2517.878966] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ff3d5b0b021fb9f8 RDI: 0000000000000000 [ 2517.882849] RBP: ff3d5b0b96a6fa00 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: 0000000000000000 [ 2517.886718] R10: 000000000000000c R11: 000000000000000c R12: ff3d5b0b021fb9f8 [ 2517.890575] R13: 0000000002000000 R14: ff3d5b0b021fb1b0 R15: 0000000000000018 [ 2517.894434] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ff3d5b42bfc80000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 2517.898299] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 2517.902157] CR2: 000000000000001a CR3: 00000004f023e005 CR4: 0000000000771ee0 [ 2517.906053] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 [ 2517.909930] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 [ 2517.913761] PKRU: 55555554 [ 2517.917558] Call Trace: [ 2517.921294] <TASK> [ 2517.924982] nvme_complete_rq+0x1c3/0x1e0 [nvme_core] [ 2517.928715] nvme_tcp_recv_pdu+0x4d7/0x540 [nvme_tcp] [ 2517.932442] nvme_tcp_recv_skb+0x4f/0x240 [nvme_tcp] [ 2517.936137] ? nvme_tcp_recv_pdu+0x540/0x540 [nvme_tcp] [ 2517.939830] tcp_read_sock+0x9c/0x260 [ 2517.943486] nvme_tcp_try_recv+0x65/0xa0 [nvme_tcp] [ 2517.947173] nvme_tcp_io_work+0x64/0x90 [nvme_tcp] [ 2517.950834] process_one_work+0x1e8/0x390 [ 2517.954473] worker_thread+0x53/0x3c0 [ 2517.958069] ? process_one_work+0x390/0x390 [ 2517.961655] kthread+0x10c/0x130 [ 2517.965211] ? set_kthread_struct+0x40/0x40 [ 2517.968760] ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30 [ 2517.972285] </TASK>

To avoid this situation, add a NULL check for req->bio before calling trace_block_bio_complete.

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50388?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2022-50388?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2022-50388 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50388 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50388, GHSA-m224-9cff-885m, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50388.

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