CVE-2022-50434 blk-mq: fix possible memleak when register 'hctx' failed
A memory leak in the Linux kernel's block multi-queue subsystem can lead to resource exhaustion and 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-2022-50434?
CVE-2022-50434 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 Oct 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:
blk-mq: fix possible memleak when register 'hctx' failed
There's issue as follows when do fault injection test: unreferenced object 0xffff888132a9f400 (size 512): comm "insmod", pid 308021, jiffies 4324277909 (age 509.733s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 f4 a9 32 81 88 ff ff ...........2.... 08 f4 a9 32 81 88 ff ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ...2............ backtrace: [<00000000e8952bb4>] kmalloc_node_trace+0x22/0xa0 [<00000000f9980e0f>] blk_mq_alloc_and_init_hctx+0x3f1/0x7e0 [<000000002e719efa>] blk_mq_realloc_hw_ctxs+0x1e6/0x230 [<000000004f1fda40>] blk_mq_init_allocated_queue+0x27e/0x910 [<00000000287123ec>] __blk_mq_alloc_disk+0x67/0xf0 [<00000000a2a34657>] 0xffffffffa2ad310f [<00000000b173f718>] 0xffffffffa2af824a [<0000000095a1dabb>] do_one_initcall+0x87/0x2a0 [<00000000f32fdf93>] do_init_module+0xdf/0x320 [<00000000cbe8541e>] load_module+0x3006/0x3390 [<0000000069ed1bdb>] __do_sys_finit_module+0x113/0x1b0 [<00000000a1a29ae8>] do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80 [<000000009cd878b0>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0
Fault injection context as follows: kobject_add blk_mq_register_hctx blk_mq_sysfs_register blk_register_queue device_add_disk null_add_dev.part.0 [null_blk]
As 'blk_mq_register_hctx' may already add some objects when failed halfway, but there isn't do fallback, caller don't know which objects add failed. To solve above issue just do fallback when add objects failed halfway in 'blk_mq_register_hctx'.
Weakness: CWE-401
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50434?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-50434?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2022-50434 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50434 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50434, GHSA-46q9-g5hq-xpgm, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50434.