CVE-2022-50854 nfc: virtual_ncidev: Fix memory leak in virtual_nci_send()
A memory leak in the Linux kernel's virtual NFC driver allows local attackers to exhaust system memory, causing denial of service.
- 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-2022-50854?
CVE-2022-50854 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 30 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:
nfc: virtual_ncidev: Fix memory leak in virtual_nci_send()
skb should be free in virtual_nci_send(), otherwise kmemleak will report memleak.
Steps for reproduction (simulated in qemu): cd tools/testing/selftests/nci make ./nci_dev
BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xffff888107588000 (size 208): comm "nci_dev", pid 206, jiffies 4294945376 (age 368.248s) 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: [<000000008d94c8fd>] __alloc_skb+0x1da/0x290 [<00000000278bc7f8>] nci_send_cmd+0xa3/0x350 [<0000000081256a22>] nci_reset_req+0x6b/0xa0 [<000000009e721112>] __nci_request+0x90/0x250 [<000000005d556e59>] nci_dev_up+0x217/0x5b0 [<00000000e618ce62>] nfc_dev_up+0x114/0x220 [<00000000981e226b>] nfc_genl_dev_up+0x94/0xe0 [<000000009bb03517>] genl_family_rcv_msg_doit.isra.14+0x228/0x2d0 [<00000000b7f8c101>] genl_rcv_msg+0x35c/0x640 [<00000000c94075ff>] netlink_rcv_skb+0x11e/0x350 [<00000000440cfb1e>] genl_rcv+0x24/0x40 [<0000000062593b40>] netlink_unicast+0x43f/0x640 [<000000001d0b13cc>] netlink_sendmsg+0x73a/0xbf0 [<000000003272487f>] __sys_sendto+0x324/0x370 [<00000000ef9f1747>] __x64_sys_sendto+0xdd/0x1b0 [<000000001e437841>] do_syscall_64+0x3f/0x90
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50854?
How do I fix CVE-2022-50854?
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-2022-50854 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50854 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50854, GHSA-7h7x-whhw-m2r2, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50854.