CVE-2022-50531 tipc: fix an information leak in tipc_topsrv_kern_subscr

What is CVE-2022-50531?

CVE-2022-50531 is a medium-severity 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:

tipc: fix an information leak in tipc_topsrv_kern_subscr

Use a 8-byte write to initialize sub.usr_handle in tipc_topsrv_kern_subscr(), otherwise four bytes remain uninitialized when issuing setsockopt(..., SOL_TIPC, ...). This resulted in an infoleak reported by KMSAN when the packet was received:

===================================================== BUG: KMSAN: kernel-infoleak in copyout+0xbc/0x100 lib/iov_iter.c:169 instrument_copy_to_user ./include/linux/instrumented.h:121 copyout+0xbc/0x100 lib/iov_iter.c:169 _copy_to_iter+0x5c0/0x20a0 lib/iov_iter.c:527 copy_to_iter ./include/linux/uio.h:176 simple_copy_to_iter+0x64/0xa0 net/core/datagram.c:513 __skb_datagram_iter+0x123/0xdc0 net/core/datagram.c:419 skb_copy_datagram_iter+0x58/0x200 net/core/datagram.c:527 skb_copy_datagram_msg ./include/linux/skbuff.h:3903 packet_recvmsg+0x521/0x1e70 net/packet/af_packet.c:3469 ____sys_recvmsg+0x2c4/0x810 net/socket.c:? ___sys_recvmsg+0x217/0x840 net/socket.c:2743 __sys_recvmsg net/socket.c:2773 __do_sys_recvmsg net/socket.c:2783 __se_sys_recvmsg net/socket.c:2780 __x64_sys_recvmsg+0x364/0x540 net/socket.c:2780 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 do_syscall_64+0x3d/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:120

...

Uninit was stored to memory at: tipc_sub_subscribe+0x42d/0xb50 net/tipc/subscr.c:156 tipc_conn_rcv_sub+0x246/0x620 net/tipc/topsrv.c:375 tipc_topsrv_kern_subscr+0x2e8/0x400 net/tipc/topsrv.c:579 tipc_group_create+0x4e7/0x7d0 net/tipc/group.c:190 tipc_sk_join+0x2a8/0x770 net/tipc/socket.c:3084 tipc_setsockopt+0xae5/0xe40 net/tipc/socket.c:3201 __sys_setsockopt+0x87f/0xdc0 net/socket.c:2252 __do_sys_setsockopt net/socket.c:2263 __se_sys_setsockopt net/socket.c:2260 __x64_sys_setsockopt+0xe0/0x160 net/socket.c:2260 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 do_syscall_64+0x3d/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:120

Local variable sub created at: tipc_topsrv_kern_subscr+0x57/0x400 net/tipc/topsrv.c:562 tipc_group_create+0x4e7/0x7d0 net/tipc/group.c:190

Bytes 84-87 of 88 are uninitialized Memory access of size 88 starts at ffff88801ed57cd0 Data copied to user address 0000000020000400 ... =====================================================

Weakness: CWE-401

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50531?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2022-50531?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2022-50531 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50531 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50531, GHSA-rf5c-crcv-v9wg, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50531.