CVE-2022-50370 | i2c: designware: Fix handling of real but unexpected device interrupts

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: i2c: designware: Fix handling of real but unexpected device interrupts Commit c7b79a752871 ("mfd: intel-lpss: Add Intel Alder Lake PCH-S PCI IDs") caused a regression on certain Gigabyte motherboards for Intel Alder Lake-S where system crashes to NULL pointer dereference in i2c_dw_xfer_msg() when system resumes from S3 sleep state ("deep"). I was able to debug the issue on Gigabyte Z690 AORUS ELITE and made following notes: - Issue happens when resuming from S3 but not when resuming from "s2idle" - PCI device 00:15.0 == i2c_designware.0 is already in D0 state when system enters into pci_pm_resume_noirq() while all other i2c_designware PCI devices are in D3. Devices were runtime suspended and in D3 prior entering into suspend - Interrupt comes after pci_pm_resume_noirq() when device interrupts are re-enabled - According to register dump the interrupt really comes from the i2c_designware.0. Controller is enabled, I2C target address register points to a one detectable I2C device address 0x60 and the DW_IC_RAW_INTR_STAT register START_DET, STOP_DET, ACTIVITY and TX_EMPTY bits are set indicating completed I2C transaction. My guess is that the firmware uses this controller to communicate with an on-board I2C device during resume but does not disable the controller before giving control to an operating system. I was told the UEFI update fixes this but never the less it revealed the driver is not ready to handle TX_EMPTY (or RX_FULL) interrupt when device is supposed to be idle and state variables are not set (especially the dev->msgs pointer which may point to NULL or stale old data). Introduce a new software status flag STATUS_ACTIVE indicating when the controller is active in driver point of view. Now treat all interrupts that occur when is not set as unexpected and mask all interrupts from the controller.

Published: 2025-09-17 Last update: 2026-01-14 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-50370 is rated Low Risk (23/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). 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-2022-50370

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 2025-09-18 0.02%

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-50370

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]
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 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-50370

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-50370

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2022-50370 unimportant 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-2022-50370
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-50370
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-50370/
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-50370 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1414 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1017, ignored 158, not-affected 128, released 110, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-50370

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-50370

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 5.12, < 5.15.75 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 5.19.17 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.0, < 6.0.3 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-50370

cvelogic Threat Intelligence