# CVE-2022-50550: blk-iolatency: Fix memory leak on add_disk() failures

> A memory leak in the Linux kernel's blk-iolatency module during disk initialization failures can lead to resource exhaustion and denial of service.

- **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:** 7 Oct 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-76628, DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50550, GHSA-rv3q-w2vv-wgf5, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2022-50550, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2022-50550, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50550

## What is CVE-2022-50550?

CVE-2022-50550 is a medium-severity memory corruption 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:

blk-iolatency: Fix memory leak on add_disk() failures

When a gendisk is successfully initialized but add_disk() fails such as when
a loop device has invalid number of minor device numbers specified,
blkcg_init_disk() is called during init and then blkcg_exit_disk() during
error handling. Unfortunately, iolatency gets initialized in the former but
doesn't get cleaned up in the latter.

This is because, in non-error cases, the cleanup is performed by
del_gendisk() calling rq_qos_exit(), the assumption being that rq_qos
policies, iolatency being one of them, can only be activated once the disk
is fully registered and visible. That assumption is true for wbt and iocost,
but not so for iolatency as it gets initialized before add_disk() is called.

It is desirable to lazy-init rq_qos policies because they are optional
features and add to hot path overhead once initialized - each IO has to walk
all the registered rq_qos policies. So, we want to switch iolatency to lazy
init too. However, that's a bigger change. As a fix for the immediate
problem, let's just add an extra call to rq_qos_exit() in blkcg_exit_disk().
This is safe because duplicate calls to rq_qos_exit() become noop's.

Weakness: CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50550?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-50550?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-50550 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50550 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-2022-50550 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-50550 is a medium-severity memory corruption 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50550 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-2022-50550/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50550/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-50550
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-50550
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-50550

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50550/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.