CVE-2022-50498 eth: alx: take rtnl_lock on resume
A missing lock in the alx network driver during resume can trigger a kernel assertion failure, potentially causing a 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-2022-50498?
CVE-2022-50498 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 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:
eth: alx: take rtnl_lock on resume
Zbynek reports that alx trips an rtnl assertion on resume:
RTNL: assertion failed at net/core/dev.c (2891) RIP: 0010:netif_set_real_num_tx_queues+0x1ac/0x1c0 Call Trace: <TASK> __alx_open+0x230/0x570 [alx] alx_resume+0x54/0x80 [alx] ? pci_legacy_resume+0x80/0x80 dpm_run_callback+0x4a/0x150 device_resume+0x8b/0x190 async_resume+0x19/0x30 async_run_entry_fn+0x30/0x130 process_one_work+0x1e5/0x3b0
indeed the driver does not hold rtnl_lock during its internal close and re-open functions during suspend/resume. Note that this is not a huge bug as the driver implements its own locking, and does not implement changing the number of queues, but we need to silence the splat.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50498?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-50498?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2022-50498 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50498 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50498, GHSA-5v2q-57gf-xr2x, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50498.