CVE-2022-50381 [Medium] | Security Vulnerability in Linux Kernel

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: md: fix a crash in mempool_free There's a crash in mempool_free when running the lvm test shell/lvchange-rebuild-raid.sh. The reason for the crash is this: * super_written calls atomic_dec_and_test(&mddev->pending_writes) and wake_up(&mddev->sb_wait). Then it calls rdev_dec_pending(rdev, mddev) and bio_put(bio). * so, the process that waited on sb_wait and that is woken up is racing with bio_put(bio). * if the process wins the race, it calls bioset_exit before bio_put(bio) is executed. * bio_put(bio) attempts to free a bio into a destroyed bio set - causing a crash in mempool_free. We fix this bug by moving bio_put before atomic_dec_and_test. We also move rdev_dec_pending before atomic_dec_and_test as suggested by Neil Brown. The function md_end_flush has a similar bug - we must call bio_put before we decrement the number of in-progress bios. BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page PGD 11557f0067 P4D 11557f0067 PUD 0 Oops: 0002 [#1] PREEMPT SMP CPU: 0 PID: 73 Comm: kworker/0:1 Not tainted 6.1.0-rc3 #5 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.14.0-2 04/01/2014 Workqueue: kdelayd flush_expired_bios [dm_delay] RIP: 0010:mempool_free+0x47/0x80 Code: 48 89 ef 5b 5d ff e0 f3 c3 48 89 f7 e8 32 45 3f 00 48 63 53 08 48 89 c6 3b 53 04 7d 2d 48 8b 43 10 8d 4a 01 48 89 df 89 4b 08 <48> 89 2c d0 e8 b0 45 3f 00 48 8d 7b 30 5b 5d 31 c9 ba 01 00 00 00 RSP: 0018:ffff88910036bda8 EFLAGS: 00010093 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff8891037b65d8 RCX: 0000000000000001 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000202 RDI: ffff8891037b65d8 RBP: ffff8891447ba240 R08: 0000000000012908 R09: 00000000003d0900 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000173544 R12: ffff889101a14000 R13: ffff8891562ac300 R14: ffff889102b41440 R15: ffffe8ffffa00d05 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88942fa00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 0000001102e99000 CR4: 00000000000006b0 Call Trace: <TASK> clone_endio+0xf4/0x1c0 [dm_mod] clone_endio+0xf4/0x1c0 [dm_mod] __submit_bio+0x76/0x120 submit_bio_noacct_nocheck+0xb6/0x2a0 flush_expired_bios+0x28/0x2f [dm_delay] process_one_work+0x1b4/0x300 worker_thread+0x45/0x3e0 ? rescuer_thread+0x380/0x380 kthread+0xc2/0x100 ? kthread_complete_and_exit+0x20/0x20 ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30 </TASK> Modules linked in: brd dm_delay dm_raid dm_mod af_packet uvesafb cfbfillrect cfbimgblt cn cfbcopyarea fb font fbdev tun autofs4 binfmt_misc configfs ipv6 virtio_rng virtio_balloon rng_core virtio_net pcspkr net_failover failover qemu_fw_cfg button mousedev raid10 raid456 libcrc32c async_raid6_recov async_memcpy async_pq raid6_pq async_xor xor async_tx raid1 raid0 md_mod sd_mod t10_pi crc64_rocksoft crc64 virtio_scsi scsi_mod evdev psmouse bsg scsi_common [last unloaded: brd] CR2: 0000000000000000 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2025-09-19	—	0.03%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2025-09-19

—

0.03%

—

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

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

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-50381

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	not yet assigned	CVE-2022-50381 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-2022-50381
`redhat`	medium	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-50381
`suse`	high	—	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-50381/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2022-50381 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 161, released 150, not-affected 80, needed 5, needs-triage 1.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-50381

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-50381

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
linux	linux_kernel	< 4.9.337	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 4.10, < 4.14.303	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 4.15, < 4.19.270	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 4.20, < 5.4.229	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 5.5, < 5.10.163	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 5.11, < 5.15.87	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 5.16, < 6.0.17	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 6.1, < 6.1.3	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::

References for CVE-2022-50381

URL	Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/341097ee53573e06ab9fc675d96a052385b851fa	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/384ef33d37cefb2ac539d44597d03f06c9b8975c	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/732cd66ec19a17f2b9183d7d5b7bdb9c39b0776e	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/842f222fc42a9239831e15b1fd49a51c546902cb	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/91bd504128a51776472445070e11a3b0f9348c90	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/97ce99984be12b9acb49ddce0f5d8ebb037adbb6	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ae7793027766491c5f8635b12d15a5940d3b8698	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b5be563b4356b3089b3245d024cae3f248ba7090	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cf06b162f5b6337b688072a1a47941280b8f7110	Patch

URL

CVE-2022-50381 | md: fix a crash in mempool_free

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-50381

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-50381

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-50381

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-50381

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-50381

References for CVE-2022-50381