CVE-2022-50500 netdevsim: fix memory leak in nsim_drv_probe() when nsim_dev_resources_register() failed
A memory leak in the Linux kernel netdevsim driver allows local attackers to cause 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-2022-50500?
CVE-2022-50500 is a medium-severity memory corruption 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:
netdevsim: fix memory leak in nsim_drv_probe() when nsim_dev_resources_register() failed
If some items in nsim_dev_resources_register() fail, memory leak will occur. The following is the memory leak information.
unreferenced object 0xffff888074c02600 (size 128): comm "echo", pid 8159, jiffies 4294945184 (age 493.530s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 40 47 ea 89 ff ff ff ff 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 @G.............. ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ................ backtrace: [<0000000011a31c98>] kmalloc_trace+0x22/0x60 [<0000000027384c69>] devl_resource_register+0x144/0x4e0 [<00000000a16db248>] nsim_drv_probe+0x37a/0x1260 [<000000007d1f448c>] really_probe+0x20b/0xb10 [<00000000c416848a>] __driver_probe_device+0x1b3/0x4a0 [<00000000077e0351>] driver_probe_device+0x49/0x140 [<0000000054f2465a>] __device_attach_driver+0x18c/0x2a0 [<000000008538f359>] bus_for_each_drv+0x151/0x1d0 [<0000000038e09747>] __device_attach+0x1c9/0x4e0 [<00000000dd86e533>] bus_probe_device+0x1d5/0x280 [<00000000839bea35>] device_add+0xae0/0x1cb0 [<000000009c2abf46>] new_device_store+0x3b6/0x5f0 [<00000000fb823d7f>] bus_attr_store+0x72/0xa0 [<000000007acc4295>] sysfs_kf_write+0x106/0x160 [<000000005f50cb4d>] kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x3a8/0x5a0 [<0000000075eb41bf>] vfs_write+0x8f0/0xc80
Weakness: CWE-401
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50500?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-50500?
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-2022-50500 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50500 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as AZL-75072, DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50500, GHSA-6mpc-qpfh-2q9r, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2022-50500, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2022-50500, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50500.