CVE-2022-50616 regulator: core: Use different devices for resource allocation and DT lookup
A use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel regulator core allows local attackers to potentially execute arbitrary code or escalate privileges.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2022-50616?
CVE-2022-50616 is an use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 8 Dec 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:
regulator: core: Use different devices for resource allocation and DT lookup
Following by the below discussion, there's the potential UAF issue between regulator and mfd. https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/
From the analysis of Yingliang
CPU A |CPU B mt6370_probe() | devm_mfd_add_devices() | |mt6370_regulator_probe() | regulator_register() | //allocate init_data and add it to devres | regulator_of_get_init_data() i2c_unregister_device() | device_del() | devres_release_all() | // init_data is freed | release_nodes() | | // using init_data causes UAF | regulator_register()
It's common to use mfd core to create child device for the regulator. In order to do the DT lookup for init data, the child that registered the regulator would pass its parent as the parameter. And this causes init data resource allocated to its parent, not itself. The issue happen when parent device is going to release and regulator core is still doing some operation of init data constraint for the regulator of child device.
To fix it, this patch expand 'regulator_register' API to use the different devices for init data allocation and DT lookup.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50616?
How do I fix CVE-2022-50616?
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-2022-50616 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50616 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50616, GHSA-4gcp-hx9q-5r25, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2022-50616, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2022-50616, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50616.