# CVE-2022-50639: io-wq: Fix memory leak in worker creation

> A memory leak in the Linux kernel's io-wq worker creation allows local attackers to exhaust system memory, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **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:** 9 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50639, GHSA-556c-4mvg-6pqr, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50639

## What is CVE-2022-50639?

CVE-2022-50639 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 9 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:

io-wq: Fix memory leak in worker creation

If the CPU mask allocation for a node fails, then the memory allocated for
the 'io_wqe' struct of the current node doesn't get freed on the error
handling path, since it has not yet been added to the 'wqes' array.

This was spotted when fuzzing v6.1-rc1 with Syzkaller:
BUG: memory leak
unreferenced object 0xffff8880093d5000 (size 1024):
  comm "syz-executor.2", pid 7701, jiffies 4295048595 (age 13.900s)
  hex dump (first 32 bytes):
    00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
    00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
  backtrace:
    [<00000000cb463369>] __kmem_cache_alloc_node+0x18e/0x720
    [<00000000147a3f9c>] kmalloc_node_trace+0x2a/0x130
    [<000000004e107011>] io_wq_create+0x7b9/0xdc0
    [<00000000c38b2018>] io_uring_alloc_task_context+0x31e/0x59d
    [<00000000867399da>] __io_uring_add_tctx_node.cold+0x19/0x1ba
    [<000000007e0e7a79>] io_uring_setup.cold+0x1b80/0x1dce
    [<00000000b545e9f6>] __x64_sys_io_uring_setup+0x5d/0x80
    [<000000008a8a7508>] do_syscall_64+0x5d/0x90
    [<000000004ac08bec>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50639?


## How do I fix CVE-2022-50639?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-50639 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50639 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-50639 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-50639 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 9 Dec 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-2022-50639 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-2022-50639/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50639/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-50639
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-50639
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-50639

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50639/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.