# CVE-2022-50452: net: sched: cake: fix null pointer access issue when cake_init() fails

> A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's CAKE qdisc can cause a system crash when initialization fails, requiring specific network configuration.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 1 Oct 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50452, GHSA-x9pv-29h8-5m3m, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50452

## What is CVE-2022-50452?

CVE-2022-50452 is a medium-severity 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:

net: sched: cake: fix null pointer access issue when cake_init() fails

When the default qdisc is cake, if the qdisc of dev_queue fails to be
inited during mqprio_init(), cake_reset() is invoked to clear
resources. In this case, the tins is NULL, and it will cause gpf issue.

The process is as follows:
qdisc_create_dflt()
	cake_init()
		q->tins = kvcalloc(...)        --->failed, q->tins is NULL
	...
	qdisc_put()
		...
		cake_reset()
			...
			cake_dequeue_one()
				b = &q->tins[...]   --->q->tins is NULL

The following is the Call Trace information:
general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address
0xdffffc0000000000: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007]
RIP: 0010:cake_dequeue_one+0xc9/0x3c0
Call Trace:
<TASK>
cake_reset+0xb1/0x140
qdisc_reset+0xed/0x6f0
qdisc_destroy+0x82/0x4c0
qdisc_put+0x9e/0xb0
qdisc_create_dflt+0x2c3/0x4a0
mqprio_init+0xa71/0x1760
qdisc_create+0x3eb/0x1000
tc_modify_qdisc+0x408/0x1720
rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x38e/0xac0
netlink_rcv_skb+0x12d/0x3a0
netlink_unicast+0x4a2/0x740
netlink_sendmsg+0x826/0xcc0
sock_sendmsg+0xc5/0x100
____sys_sendmsg+0x583/0x690
___sys_sendmsg+0xe8/0x160
__sys_sendmsg+0xbf/0x160
do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0
RIP: 0033:0x7f89e5122d04
</TASK>

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50452?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-50452?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-50452 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50452 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-50452 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-50452 is a medium-severity 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50452 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50452/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50452/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-50452
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-50452
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-50452

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50452/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.