# CVE-2022-50699: selinux: enable use of both GFP_KERNEL and GFP_ATOMIC in convert_context()

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel bug in SELinux context conversion, causing a system crash or denial of service.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 24 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50699, GHSA-q7j6-phcv-5jh3, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50699

## What is CVE-2022-50699?

CVE-2022-50699 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 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:

selinux: enable use of both GFP_KERNEL and GFP_ATOMIC in convert_context()

The following warning was triggered on a hardware environment:

  SELinux: Converting 162 SID table entries...
  BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at
       __might_sleep+0x60/0x74 0x0
  in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 128, non_block: 0, pid: 5943, name: tar
  CPU: 7 PID: 5943 Comm: tar Tainted: P O 5.10.0 #1
  Call trace:
   dump_backtrace+0x0/0x1c8
   show_stack+0x18/0x28
   dump_stack+0xe8/0x15c
   ___might_sleep+0x168/0x17c
   __might_sleep+0x60/0x74
   __kmalloc_track_caller+0xa0/0x7dc
   kstrdup+0x54/0xac
   convert_context+0x48/0x2e4
   sidtab_context_to_sid+0x1c4/0x36c
   security_context_to_sid_core+0x168/0x238
   security_context_to_sid_default+0x14/0x24
   inode_doinit_use_xattr+0x164/0x1e4
   inode_doinit_with_dentry+0x1c0/0x488
   selinux_d_instantiate+0x20/0x34
   security_d_instantiate+0x70/0xbc
   d_splice_alias+0x4c/0x3c0
   ext4_lookup+0x1d8/0x200 [ext4]
   __lookup_slow+0x12c/0x1e4
   walk_component+0x100/0x200
   path_lookupat+0x88/0x118
   filename_lookup+0x98/0x130
   user_path_at_empty+0x48/0x60
   vfs_statx+0x84/0x140
   vfs_fstatat+0x20/0x30
   __se_sys_newfstatat+0x30/0x74
   __arm64_sys_newfstatat+0x1c/0x2c
   el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0x100/0x184
   do_el0_svc+0x1c/0x2c
   el0_svc+0x20/0x34
   el0_sync_handler+0x80/0x17c
   el0_sync+0x13c/0x140
  SELinux: Context system_u:object_r:pssp_rsyslog_log_t:s0:c0 is
           not valid (left unmapped).

It was found that within a critical section of spin_lock_irqsave in
sidtab_context_to_sid(), convert_context() (hooked by
sidtab_convert_params.func) might cause the process to sleep via
allocating memory with GFP_KERNEL, which is problematic.

As Ondrej pointed out [1], convert_context()/sidtab_convert_params.func
has another caller sidtab_convert_tree(), which is okay with GFP_KERNEL.
Therefore, fix this problem by adding a gfp_t argument for
convert_context()/sidtab_convert_params.func and pass GFP_KERNEL/_ATOMIC
properly in individual callers.

[PM: wrap long BUG() output lines, tweak subject line]

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50699?


## How do I fix CVE-2022-50699?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-50699 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50699 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-50699 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-50699 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 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-2022-50699 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-2022-50699/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50699/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-50699
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-50699
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-50699

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50699/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.