CVE-2022-50436 ext4: don't set up encryption key during jbd2 transaction

What is CVE-2022-50436?

CVE-2022-50436 is a medium-severity denial of service 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:

ext4: don't set up encryption key during jbd2 transaction

Commit a80f7fcf1867 ("ext4: fixup ext4_fc_track_* functions' signature") extended the scope of the transaction in ext4_unlink() too far, making it include the call to ext4_find_entry(). However, ext4_find_entry() can deadlock when called from within a transaction because it may need to set up the directory's encryption key.

Fix this by restoring the transaction to its original scope.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50436?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2022-50436?

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-2022-50436 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50436 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-2022-50436, GHSA-h235-mqh4-6cp2, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50436.