Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2022-50638). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Exploitable via cat. Mitigation: upgrade to 4.9.337, 4.14.303, 4.19.270, 5.4.229, 5.10.163, 5.15.87, 6.0.18, 6.1.4 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ext4: fix bug_on in __es_tree_search caused by bad boot loader inode

We got a issue as fllows:

kernel BUG at fs/ext4/extents_status.c:203!
invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP
CPU: 1 PID: 945 Comm: cat Not tainted 6.0.0-next-20221007-dirty #349
RIP: 0010:ext4_es_end.isra.0+0x34/0x42
RSP: 0018:ffffc9000143b768 EFLAGS: 00010203
RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff8881769cd0b8 RCX: 0000000000000000
RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffffffff8fc27cf7 RDI: 00000000ffffffff
RBP: ffff8881769cd0bc R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffffc9000143b5f8
R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: ffff8881769cd0a0
R13: ffff8881768e5668 R14: 00000000768e52f0 R15: 0000000000000000
FS: 00007f359f7f05c0(0000)GS:ffff88842fd00000(0000)knlGS:0000000000000000
CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 00007f359f5a2000 CR3: 000000017130c000 CR4: 00000000000006e0
DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
Call Trace:

__es_tree_search.isra.0+0x6d/0xf5
ext4_es_cache_extent+0xfa/0x230
ext4_cache_extents+0xd2/0x110
ext4_find_extent+0x5d5/0x8c0
ext4_ext_map_blocks+0x9c/0x1d30
ext4_map_blocks+0x431/0xa50
ext4_mpage_readpages+0x48e/0xe40
ext4_readahead+0x47/0x50
read_pages+0x82/0x530
page_cache_ra_unbounded+0x199/0x2a0
do_page_cache_ra+0x47/0x70…

Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD OSV

Auto-generated summary

Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.

A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2022-50638 has been found in Kernel.
Attackers can target a specific entry point like cat over the network to misuse the product.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 4.9.337, 4.14.303, 4.19.270, 5.4.229, 5.10.163, 5.15.87, 6.0.18, 6.1.4 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2022-50638" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2022-50638 (Kernel)
Attack surface: cat
Patched: 4.9.337, 4.14.303, 4.19.270, 5.4.229, 5.10.163, 5.15.87, 6.0.18, 6.1.4 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.

❓ What is the problem

A vulnerability (unclassified) exists in Kernel. Attackers reach the vulnerable code path via cat.

📍 Affected scope

Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Kernel. Attack surface: cat.

🔥 Severity

Severity: ?. Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.

🔧 How to fix

Update to 4.9.337, 4.14.303, 4.19.270, 5.4.229, 5.10.163, 5.15.87, 6.0.18, 6.1.4.

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'Kernel' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.

Response actions

Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order

1
Identify exposure identify
```
grep -r 'Kernel' . | grep -v node_modules
```
リポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で Kernel を grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。
2
Apply patch patch
```
Upgrade Kernel to 4.9.337, 4.14.303, 4.19.270, 5.4.229, 5.10.163, 5.15.87, 6.0.18, 6.1.4
```
ステージング環境で 4.9.337, 4.14.303, 4.19.270, 5.4.229, 5.10.163, 5.15.87, 6.0.18, 6.1.4 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
3
Post-deployment verification verify
```
Confirm patched version is live in production
```
パッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。

Affected packages

Linux Kernel

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"3.10.0"},{"fixed":"4.9.337"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"4.10.0"},{"fixed":"4.14.303"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"4.15.0"},{"fixed":"4.19.270"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"4.20.0"},{"fixed":"5.4.229"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.5.0"},{"fixed":"5.10.163"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.11.0"},{"fixed":"5.15.87"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.16.0"},{"fixed":"6.0.18"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.1.0"},{"fixed":"6.1.4"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50638 linux Fixed in: 5.10.178-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50638 linux-azure Fixed in: 4.15.0-1162.177~14.04.1