CVE-2022-50118 | powerpc/perf: Optimize clearing the pending PMI and remove WARN_ON for PMI check in power_pmu_disable

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc/perf: Optimize clearing the pending PMI and remove WARN_ON for PMI check in power_pmu_disable commit 2c9ac51b850d ("powerpc/perf: Fix PMU callbacks to clear pending PMI before resetting an overflown PMC") added a new function "pmi_irq_pending" in hw_irq.h. This function is to check if there is a PMI marked as pending in Paca (PACA_IRQ_PMI).This is used in power_pmu_disable in a WARN_ON. The intention here is to provide a warning if there is PMI pending, but no counter is found overflown. During some of the perf runs, below warning is hit: WARNING: CPU: 36 PID: 0 at arch/powerpc/perf/core-book3s.c:1332 power_pmu_disable+0x25c/0x2c0 Modules linked in: ----- NIP [c000000000141c3c] power_pmu_disable+0x25c/0x2c0 LR [c000000000141c8c] power_pmu_disable+0x2ac/0x2c0 Call Trace: [c000000baffcfb90] [c000000000141c8c] power_pmu_disable+0x2ac/0x2c0 (unreliable) [c000000baffcfc10] [c0000000003e2f8c] perf_pmu_disable+0x4c/0x60 [c000000baffcfc30] [c0000000003e3344] group_sched_out.part.124+0x44/0x100 [c000000baffcfc80] [c0000000003e353c] __perf_event_disable+0x13c/0x240 [c000000baffcfcd0] [c0000000003dd334] event_function+0xc4/0x140 [c000000baffcfd20] [c0000000003d855c] remote_function+0x7c/0xa0 [c000000baffcfd50] [c00000000026c394] flush_smp_call_function_queue+0xd4/0x300 [c000000baffcfde0] [c000000000065b24] smp_ipi_demux_relaxed+0xa4/0x100 [c000000baffcfe20] [c0000000000cb2b0] xive_muxed_ipi_action+0x20/0x40 [c000000baffcfe40] [c000000000207c3c] __handle_irq_event_percpu+0x8c/0x250 [c000000baffcfee0] [c000000000207e2c] handle_irq_event_percpu+0x2c/0xa0 [c000000baffcff10] [c000000000210a04] handle_percpu_irq+0x84/0xc0 [c000000baffcff40] [c000000000205f14] generic_handle_irq+0x54/0x80 [c000000baffcff60] [c000000000015740] __do_irq+0x90/0x1d0 [c000000baffcff90] [c000000000016990] __do_IRQ+0xc0/0x140 [c0000009732f3940] [c000000bafceaca8] 0xc000000bafceaca8 [c0000009732f39d0] [c000000000016b78] do_IRQ+0x168/0x1c0 [c0000009732f3a00] [c0000000000090c8] hardware_interrupt_common_virt+0x218/0x220 This means that there is no PMC overflown among the active events in the PMU, but there is a PMU pending in Paca. The function "any_pmc_overflown" checks the PMCs on active events in cpuhw->n_events. Code snippet: <<>> if (any_pmc_overflown(cpuhw)) clear_pmi_irq_pending(); else WARN_ON(pmi_irq_pending()); <<>> Here the PMC overflown is not from active event. Example: When we do perf record, default cycles and instructions will be running on PMC6 and PMC5 respectively. It could happen that overflowed event is currently not active and pending PMI is for the inactive event. Debug logs from trace_printk: <<>> any_pmc_overflown: idx is 5: pmc value is 0xd9a power_pmu_disable: PMC1: 0x0, PMC2: 0x0, PMC3: 0x0, PMC4: 0x0, PMC5: 0xd9a, PMC6: 0x80002011 <<>> Here active PMC (from idx) is PMC5 , but overflown PMC is PMC6(0x80002011). When we handle PMI interrupt for such cases, if the PMC overflown is from inactive event, it will be ignored. Reference commit: commit bc09c219b2e6 ("powerpc/perf: Fix finding overflowed PMC in interrupt") Patch addresses two changes: 1) Fix 1 : Removal of warning ( WARN_ON(pmi_irq_pending()); ) We were printing warning if no PMC is found overflown among active PMU events, but PMI pending in PACA. But this could happen in cases where PMC overflown is not in active PMC. An inactive event could have caused the overflow. Hence the warning is not needed. To know pending PMI is from an inactive event, we need to loop through all PMC's which will cause more SPR reads via mfspr and increase in context switch. Also in existing function: perf_event_interrupt, already we ignore PMI's overflown when it is from an inactive PMC. 2) Fix 2: optimization in clearing pending PMI. Currently we check for any active PMC overflown before clearing PMI pending in Paca. This is causing additional SP ---truncated---

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

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-50118 is rated Low Risk (27.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.05%). 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-2022-50118

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% 0.05% +0.04%
2 2025-06-18 0.02%

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-50118

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-50118

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-50118

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2022-50118 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-2022-50118
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-50118
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-50118/
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-50118 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 144, released 114, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-50118

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-50118

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 5.10.94, < 5.10.137 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.15.17, < 5.15.61 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16.3, < 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-2022-50118

cvelogic Threat Intelligence