# CVE-2022-50765: RISC-V: kexec: Fix memory leak of elf header buffer

> A memory leak in the Linux kernel's RISC-V kexec implementation allows local attackers to exhaust system memory, causing denial of service.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **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-2022-50765, GHSA-9rwv-33pv-xm7g, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50765

## What is CVE-2022-50765?

CVE-2022-50765 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:

RISC-V: kexec: Fix memory leak of elf header buffer

This is reported by kmemleak detector:

unreferenced object 0xff2000000403d000 (size 4096):
  comm "kexec", pid 146, jiffies 4294900633 (age 64.792s)
  hex dump (first 32 bytes):
    7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  .ELF............
    04 00 f3 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
  backtrace:
    [<00000000566ca97c>] kmemleak_vmalloc+0x3c/0xbe
    [<00000000979283d8>] __vmalloc_node_range+0x3ac/0x560
    [<00000000b4b3712a>] __vmalloc_node+0x56/0x62
    [<00000000854f75e2>] vzalloc+0x2c/0x34
    [<00000000e9a00db9>] crash_prepare_elf64_headers+0x80/0x30c
    [<0000000067e8bf48>] elf_kexec_load+0x3e8/0x4ec
    [<0000000036548e09>] kexec_image_load_default+0x40/0x4c
    [<0000000079fbe1b4>] sys_kexec_file_load+0x1c4/0x322
    [<0000000040c62c03>] ret_from_syscall+0x0/0x2

In elf_kexec_load(), a buffer is allocated via vzalloc() to store elf
headers.  While it's not freed back to system when kdump kernel is
reloaded or unloaded, or when image->elf_header is successfully set and
then fails to load kdump kernel for some reason. Fix it by freeing the
buffer in arch_kimage_file_post_load_cleanup().

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50765?


## How do I fix CVE-2022-50765?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-50765 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50765 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-50765 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-50765 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-2022-50765 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-2022-50765/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50765/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-50765
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-50765
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-50765

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50765/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.