CVE-2022-50442 fs/ntfs3: Validate buffer length while parsing index
A missing buffer length validation in the Linux kernel NTFS3 driver allows out-of-bounds memory access, potentially leading to crashes or code execution.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2022-50442?
CVE-2022-50442 is a high-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:
fs/ntfs3: Validate buffer length while parsing index
indx_read is called when we have some NTFS directory operations that need more information from the index buffers. This adds a sanity check to make sure the returned index buffer length is legit, or we may have some out-of-bound memory accesses.
[ 560.897595] BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in hdr_find_e.isra.0+0x10c/0x320 [ 560.898321] Read of size 2 at addr ffff888009497238 by task exp/245 [ 560.898760] [ 560.899129] CPU: 0 PID: 245 Comm: exp Not tainted 6.0.0-rc6 #37 [ 560.899505] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.14.0-0-g155821a1990b-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [ 560.900170] Call Trace: [ 560.900407] <TASK> [ 560.900732] dump_stack_lvl+0x49/0x63 [ 560.901108] print_report.cold+0xf5/0x689 [ 560.901395] ? hdr_find_e.isra.0+0x10c/0x320 [ 560.901716] kasan_report+0xa7/0x130 [ 560.901950] ? hdr_find_e.isra.0+0x10c/0x320 [ 560.902208] __asan_load2+0x68/0x90 [ 560.902427] hdr_find_e.isra.0+0x10c/0x320 [ 560.902846] ? cmp_uints+0xe0/0xe0 [ 560.903363] ? cmp_sdh+0x90/0x90 [ 560.903883] ? ntfs_bread_run+0x190/0x190 [ 560.904196] ? rwsem_down_read_slowpath+0x750/0x750 [ 560.904969] ? ntfs_fix_post_read+0xe0/0x130 [ 560.905259] ? __kasan_check_write+0x14/0x20 [ 560.905599] ? up_read+0x1a/0x90 [ 560.905853] ? indx_read+0x22c/0x380 [ 560.906096] indx_find+0x2ef/0x470 [ 560.906352] ? indx_find_buffer+0x2d0/0x2d0 [ 560.906692] ? __kasan_kmalloc+0x88/0xb0 [ 560.906977] dir_search_u+0x196/0x2f0 [ 560.907220] ? ntfs_nls_to_utf16+0x450/0x450 [ 560.907464] ? __kasan_check_write+0x14/0x20 [ 560.907747] ? mutex_lock+0x8f/0xe0 [ 560.907970] ? __mutex_lock_slowpath+0x20/0x20 [ 560.908214] ? kmem_cache_alloc+0x143/0x4b0 [ 560.908459] ntfs_lookup+0xe0/0x100 [ 560.908788] __lookup_slow+0x116/0x220 [ 560.909050] ? lookup_fast+0x1b0/0x1b0 [ 560.909309] ? lookup_fast+0x13f/0x1b0 [ 560.909601] walk_component+0x187/0x230 [ 560.909944] link_path_walk.part.0+0x3f0/0x660 [ 560.910285] ? handle_lookup_down+0x90/0x90 [ 560.910618] ? path_init+0x642/0x6e0 [ 560.911084] ? percpu_counter_add_batch+0x6e/0xf0 [ 560.912559] ? __alloc_file+0x114/0x170 [ 560.913008] path_openat+0x19c/0x1d10 [ 560.913419] ? getname_flags+0x73/0x2b0 [ 560.913815] ? kasan_save_stack+0x3a/0x50 [ 560.914125] ? kasan_save_stack+0x26/0x50 [ 560.914542] ? __kasan_slab_alloc+0x6d/0x90 [ 560.914924] ? kmem_cache_alloc+0x143/0x4b0 [ 560.915339] ? getname_flags+0x73/0x2b0 [ 560.915647] ? getname+0x12/0x20 [ 560.916114] ? __x64_sys_open+0x4c/0x60 [ 560.916460] ? path_lookupat.isra.0+0x230/0x230 [ 560.916867] ? __isolate_free_page+0x2e0/0x2e0 [ 560.917194] do_filp_open+0x15c/0x1f0 [ 560.917448] ? may_open_dev+0x60/0x60 [ 560.917696] ? expand_files+0xa4/0x3a0 [ 560.917923] ? __kasan_check_write+0x14/0x20 [ 560.918185] ? _raw_spin_lock+0x88/0xdb [ 560.918409] ? _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x100/0x100 [ 560.918783] ? _find_next_bit+0x4a/0x130 [ 560.919026] ? _raw_spin_unlock+0x19/0x40 [ 560.919276] ? alloc_fd+0x14b/0x2d0 [ 560.919635] do_sys_openat2+0x32a/0x4b0 [ 560.920035] ? file_open_root+0x230/0x230 [ 560.920336] ? __rcu_read_unlock+0x5b/0x280 [ 560.920813] do_sys_open+0x99/0xf0 [ 560.921208] ? filp_open+0x60/0x60 [ 560.921482] ? exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0x49/0x180 [ 560.921867] __x64_sys_open+0x4c/0x60 [ 560.922128] do_syscall_64+0x3b/0x90 [ 560.922369] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd [ 560.923030] RIP: 0033:0x7f7dff2e4469 [ 560.923681] Code: 00 f3 c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 40 00 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 088 [ 560.924451] RSP: 002b:00007ffd41a210b8 EFLAGS: 00000206 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000002 [ 560.925168] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 00007f7dff2e4469 [ 560.925655] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000002 RDI: ---truncated---
Weakness: CWE-125
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50442?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-50442?
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-2022-50442 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50442 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50442, GHSA-qqgg-499c-j47v, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2022-50442, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50442.