CVE-2022-50095 | posix-cpu-timers: Cleanup CPU timers before freeing them during exec

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: posix-cpu-timers: Cleanup CPU timers before freeing them during exec Commit 55e8c8eb2c7b ("posix-cpu-timers: Store a reference to a pid not a task") started looking up tasks by PID when deleting a CPU timer. When a non-leader thread calls execve, it will switch PIDs with the leader process. Then, as it calls exit_itimers, posix_cpu_timer_del cannot find the task because the timer still points out to the old PID. That means that armed timers won't be disarmed, that is, they won't be removed from the timerqueue_list. exit_itimers will still release their memory, and when that list is later processed, it leads to a use-after-free. Clean up the timers from the de-threaded task before freeing them. This prevents a reported use-after-free.

Published: 2025-06-18 Last update: 2025-11-18 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-50095 is rated Low Risk (38.2/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.06%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-50095

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-04-14 0.02% 0.06% +0.05%
2 2025-06-18 0.02%

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-50095

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-50095

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-50095

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2022-50095 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-50095
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-50095
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-50095/
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-50095 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1551 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1145, ignored 147, not-affected 134, released 92, needed 33. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-50095

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-50095

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 5.7, < 5.10.137 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.61 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 5.18.18 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.19, < 5.19.2 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-50095

cvelogic Threat Intelligence