CVE-2022-50224 | KVM: x86/mmu: Treat NX as a valid SPTE bit for NPT

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: x86/mmu: Treat NX as a valid SPTE bit for NPT Treat the NX bit as valid when using NPT, as KVM will set the NX bit when the NX huge page mitigation is enabled (mindblowing) and trigger the WARN that fires on reserved SPTE bits being set. KVM has required NX support for SVM since commit b26a71a1a5b9 ("KVM: SVM: Refuse to load kvm_amd if NX support is not available") for exactly this reason, but apparently it never occurred to anyone to actually test NPT with the mitigation enabled. ------------[ cut here ]------------ spte = 0x800000018a600ee7, level = 2, rsvd bits = 0x800f0000001fe000 WARNING: CPU: 152 PID: 15966 at arch/x86/kvm/mmu/spte.c:215 make_spte+0x327/0x340 [kvm] Hardware name: Google, Inc. Arcadia_IT_80/Arcadia_IT_80, BIOS 10.48.0 01/27/2022 RIP: 0010:make_spte+0x327/0x340 [kvm] Call Trace: <TASK> tdp_mmu_map_handle_target_level+0xc3/0x230 [kvm] kvm_tdp_mmu_map+0x343/0x3b0 [kvm] direct_page_fault+0x1ae/0x2a0 [kvm] kvm_tdp_page_fault+0x7d/0x90 [kvm] kvm_mmu_page_fault+0xfb/0x2e0 [kvm] npf_interception+0x55/0x90 [kvm_amd] svm_invoke_exit_handler+0x31/0xf0 [kvm_amd] svm_handle_exit+0xf6/0x1d0 [kvm_amd] vcpu_enter_guest+0xb6d/0xee0 [kvm] ? kvm_pmu_trigger_event+0x6d/0x230 [kvm] vcpu_run+0x65/0x2c0 [kvm] kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x355/0x610 [kvm] kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x551/0x610 [kvm] __se_sys_ioctl+0x77/0xc0 __x64_sys_ioctl+0x1d/0x20 do_syscall_64+0x44/0xa0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0 </TASK> ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

Published: 2025-06-18 Last update: 2025-11-19 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-50224 is rated Low Risk (29.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.07%). 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-2022-50224

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% 0.07% +0.06%
2 2025-06-18 0.02%

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-50224

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-2022-50224

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-50224

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2022-50224 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-50224
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-50224
suse medium CVE-2022-50224 severity moderate: SUSE including 25 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 97 product×package rows across 21 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7, SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching 12 SP5, … (21 product lines)): Known Not Affected 78, Will Not Fix 19. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-50224/
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-50224 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 151, released 92, not-affected 88, needed 75. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-50224

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-50224

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 4.9.202, < 4.10 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 4.14.154, < 4.15 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 4.19.84, < 4.20 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.3.11, < 5.4 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.4.1, < 5.19.2 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 5.4 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 5.4 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:rc8:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-50224

cvelogic Threat Intelligence