# CVE-2022-50738: vhost-vdpa: fix an iotlb memory leak

> A memory leak in the Linux kernel vhost-vdpa driver allows local attackers to cause denial of service by exhausting kernel memory.

- **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:** 24 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50738, GHSA-hfjw-rcpx-5rv6, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50738

## What is CVE-2022-50738?

CVE-2022-50738 is a memory corruption 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:

vhost-vdpa: fix an iotlb memory leak

Before commit 3d5698793897 ("vhost-vdpa: introduce asid based IOTLB")
we called vhost_vdpa_iotlb_unmap(v, iotlb, 0ULL, 0ULL - 1) during
release to free all the resources allocated when processing user IOTLB
messages through vhost_vdpa_process_iotlb_update().
That commit changed the handling of IOTLB a bit, and we accidentally
removed some code called during the release.

We partially fixed this with commit 037d4305569a ("vhost-vdpa: call
vhost_vdpa_cleanup during the release") but a potential memory leak is
still there as showed by kmemleak if the application does not send
VHOST_IOTLB_INVALIDATE or crashes:

  unreferenced object 0xffff888007fbaa30 (size 16):
    comm "blkio-bench", pid 914, jiffies 4294993521 (age 885.500s)
    hex dump (first 16 bytes):
      40 73 41 07 80 88 ff ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  @sA.............
    backtrace:
      [<0000000087736d2a>] kmem_cache_alloc_trace+0x142/0x1c0
      [<0000000060740f50>] vhost_vdpa_process_iotlb_msg+0x68c/0x901 [vhost_vdpa]
      [<0000000083e8e205>] vhost_chr_write_iter+0xc0/0x4a0 [vhost]
      [<000000008f2f414a>] vhost_vdpa_chr_write_iter+0x18/0x20 [vhost_vdpa]
      [<00000000de1cd4a0>] vfs_write+0x216/0x4b0
      [<00000000a2850200>] ksys_write+0x71/0xf0
      [<00000000de8e720b>] __x64_sys_write+0x19/0x20
      [<0000000018b12cbb>] do_syscall_64+0x3f/0x90
      [<00000000986ec465>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

Let's fix this calling vhost_vdpa_iotlb_unmap() on the whole range in
vhost_vdpa_remove_as(). We move that call before vhost_dev_cleanup()
since we need a valid v->vdev.mm in vhost_vdpa_pa_unmap().
vhost_iotlb_reset() call can be removed, since vhost_vdpa_iotlb_unmap()
on the whole range removes all the entries.

The kmemleak log reported was observed with a vDPA device that has `use_va`
set to true (e.g. VDUSE). This patch has been tested with both types of
devices.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50738?


## How do I fix CVE-2022-50738?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-50738 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50738 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-50738 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-50738 is a memory corruption 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-2022-50738 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-2022-50738/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50738/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-50738
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-50738
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-50738

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50738/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.