CVE-2022-50404 fbdev: fbcon: release buffer when fbcon_do_set_font() failed

What is CVE-2022-50404?

CVE-2022-50404 is a medium-severity denial of service 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:

fbdev: fbcon: release buffer when fbcon_do_set_font() failed

syzbot is reporting memory leak at fbcon_do_set_font() [1], for commit a5a923038d70 ("fbdev: fbcon: Properly revert changes when vc_resize() failed") missed that the buffer might be newly allocated by fbcon_set_font().

Weakness: CWE-401

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50404?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2022-50404?

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-2022-50404 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50404 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50404, GHSA-mj94-g7gv-r97m, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50404.