CVE-2022-50772 netdevsim: fix memory leak in nsim_bus_dev_new()
A memory leak in the Linux kernel netdevsim driver allows local attackers to cause denial of service by exhausting kernel memory.
- 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
What is CVE-2022-50772?
CVE-2022-50772 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:
netdevsim: fix memory leak in nsim_bus_dev_new()
If device_register() failed in nsim_bus_dev_new(), the value of reference in nsim_bus_dev->dev is 1. obj->name in nsim_bus_dev->dev will not be released.
unreferenced object 0xffff88810352c480 (size 16): comm "echo", pid 5691, jiffies 4294945921 (age 133.270s) hex dump (first 16 bytes): 6e 65 74 64 65 76 73 69 6d 31 00 00 00 00 00 00 netdevsim1...... backtrace: [<000000005e2e5e26>] __kmalloc_node_track_caller+0x3a/0xb0 [<0000000094ca4fc8>] kvasprintf+0xc3/0x160 [<00000000aad09bcc>] kvasprintf_const+0x55/0x180 [<000000009bac868d>] kobject_set_name_vargs+0x56/0x150 [<000000007c1a5d70>] dev_set_name+0xbb/0xf0 [<00000000ad0d126b>] device_add+0x1f8/0x1cb0 [<00000000c222ae24>] new_device_store+0x3b6/0x5e0 [<0000000043593421>] bus_attr_store+0x72/0xa0 [<00000000cbb1833a>] sysfs_kf_write+0x106/0x160 [<00000000d0dedb8a>] kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x3a8/0x5a0 [<00000000770b66e2>] vfs_write+0x8f0/0xc80 [<0000000078bb39be>] ksys_write+0x106/0x210 [<00000000005e55a4>] do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80 [<00000000eaa40bbc>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50772?
How do I fix CVE-2022-50772?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2022-50772 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50772 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50772, GHSA-mx2m-7wfj-355r, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2022-50772, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2022-50772, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50772.