# CVE-2022-50581: hfs: fix OOB Read in __hfs_brec_find

> An out-of-bounds read in the Linux kernel HFS filesystem allows attackers to cause a denial of service or leak sensitive memory information.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 22 Oct 2025
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50581, GHSA-w7j9-m3x4-j6vr, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50581

## What is CVE-2022-50581?

CVE-2022-50581 is a high-severity memory corruption 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:

hfs: fix OOB Read in __hfs_brec_find

Syzbot reported a OOB read bug:

==================================================================
BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in hfs_strcmp+0x117/0x190
fs/hfs/string.c:84
Read of size 1 at addr ffff88807eb62c4e by task kworker/u4:1/11
CPU: 1 PID: 11 Comm: kworker/u4:1 Not tainted
6.1.0-rc6-syzkaller-00308-g644e9524388a #0
Workqueue: writeback wb_workfn (flush-7:0)
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:88 [inline]
 dump_stack_lvl+0x1b1/0x28e lib/dump_stack.c:106
 print_address_description+0x74/0x340 mm/kasan/report.c:284
 print_report+0x107/0x1f0 mm/kasan/report.c:395
 kasan_report+0xcd/0x100 mm/kasan/report.c:495
 hfs_strcmp+0x117/0x190 fs/hfs/string.c:84
 __hfs_brec_find+0x213/0x5c0 fs/hfs/bfind.c:75
 hfs_brec_find+0x276/0x520 fs/hfs/bfind.c:138
 hfs_write_inode+0x34c/0xb40 fs/hfs/inode.c:462
 write_inode fs/fs-writeback.c:1440 [inline]

If the input inode of hfs_write_inode() is incorrect:
struct inode
  struct hfs_inode_info
    struct hfs_cat_key
      struct hfs_name
        u8 len # len is greater than HFS_NAMELEN(31) which is the
maximum length of an HFS filename

OOB read occurred:
hfs_write_inode()
  hfs_brec_find()
    __hfs_brec_find()
      hfs_cat_keycmp()
        hfs_strcmp() # OOB read occurred due to len is too large

Fix this by adding a Check on len in hfs_write_inode() before calling
hfs_brec_find().

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50581?


## How do I fix CVE-2022-50581?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-50581 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50581 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-50581 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-50581 is a high-severity memory corruption 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50581 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2022-50581/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50581/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-50581
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-50581
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-50581

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50581/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.