CVE-2022-50563 dm thin: Fix UAF in run_timer_softirq()
A use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel's dm thin driver allows local attackers with high privileges to execute arbitrary code or escalate privileges.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- An administrator
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2022-50563?
CVE-2022-50563 is an use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 22 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:
dm thin: Fix UAF in run_timer_softirq()
When dm_resume() and dm_destroy() are concurrent, it will lead to UAF, as follows:
BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in __run_timers+0x173/0x710 Write of size 8 at addr ffff88816d9490f0 by task swapper/0/0 <snip> Call Trace: <IRQ> dump_stack_lvl+0x73/0x9f print_report.cold+0x132/0xaa2 _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0xcd/0x160 __run_timers+0x173/0x710 kasan_report+0xad/0x110 __run_timers+0x173/0x710 __asan_store8+0x9c/0x140 __run_timers+0x173/0x710 call_timer_fn+0x310/0x310 pvclock_clocksource_read+0xfa/0x250 kvm_clock_read+0x2c/0x70 kvm_clock_get_cycles+0xd/0x20 ktime_get+0x5c/0x110 lapic_next_event+0x38/0x50 clockevents_program_event+0xf1/0x1e0 run_timer_softirq+0x49/0x90 __do_softirq+0x16e/0x62c __irq_exit_rcu+0x1fa/0x270 irq_exit_rcu+0x12/0x20 sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x8e/0xc0
One of the concurrency UAF can be shown as below:
use free do_resume | __find_device_hash_cell | dm_get | atomic_inc(&md->holders) | | dm_destroy | __dm_destroy | if (!dm_suspended_md(md)) | atomic_read(&md->holders) | msleep(1) dm_resume | __dm_resume | dm_table_resume_targets | pool_resume | do_waker #add delay work | dm_put | atomic_dec(&md->holders) | | dm_table_destroy | pool_dtr | __pool_dec | __pool_destroy | destroy_workqueue | kfree(pool) # free pool time out __do_softirq run_timer_softirq # pool has already been freed
This can be easily reproduced using: 1. create thin-pool 2. dmsetup suspend pool 3. dmsetup resume pool 4. dmsetup remove_all # Concurrent with 3
The root cause of this UAF bug is that dm_resume() adds timer after dm_destroy() skips cancelling the timer because of suspend status. After timeout, it will call run_timer_softirq(), however pool has already been freed. The concurrency UAF bug will happen.
Therefore, cancelling timer again in __pool_destroy().
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50563?
How do I fix CVE-2022-50563?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.
Is CVE-2022-50563 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50563 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50563, GHSA-9g9c-838j-m3cg, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50563.