CVE-2022-50513 staging: rtl8723bs: fix a potential memory leak in rtw_init_cmd_priv()
A memory leak in the rtl8723bs staging driver can lead to 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-2022-50513?
CVE-2022-50513 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 7 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:
staging: rtl8723bs: fix a potential memory leak in rtw_init_cmd_priv()
In rtw_init_cmd_priv(), if `pcmdpriv->rsp_allocated_buf` is allocated in failure, then `pcmdpriv->cmd_allocated_buf` will be not properly released. Besides, considering there are only two error paths and the first one can directly return, so we do not need implicitly jump to the `exit` tag to execute the error handler.
So this patch added `kfree(pcmdpriv->cmd_allocated_buf);` on the error path to release the resource and simplified the return logic of rtw_init_cmd_priv(). As there is no proper device to test with, no runtime testing was performed.
Weakness: CWE-401
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50513?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-50513?
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-2022-50513 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50513 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50513, GHSA-vvwr-r28w-f48x, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50513.