Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2022-50738)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2022-50738). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Exploitable via use_va. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.0.19, 6.1.5 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

vhost-vdpa: fix an iotlb memory leak

Before commit 3d5698793897 ("vhost-vdpa: introduce asid based IOTLB")
we called vhost_vdpa_iotlb_unmap(v, iotlb, 0ULL, 0ULL - 1) during
release to free all the resources allocated when processing user IOTLB
messages through vhost_vdpa_process_iotlb_update().
That commit changed the handling of IOTLB a bit, and we accidentally
removed some code called during the release.

We partially fixed this with commit 037d4305569a ("vhost-vdpa: call
vhost_vdpa_cleanup during the release") but a potential memory leak is
still there as showed by kmemleak if the application does not send
VHOST_IOTLB_INVALIDATE or crashes:

unreferenced object 0xffff888007fbaa30 (size 16):
comm "blkio-bench", pid 914, jiffies 4294993521 (age 885.500s)
hex dump (first 16 bytes):
40 73 41 07 80 88 ff ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 @sA.............
backtrace:
[<0000000087736d2a>] kmem_cache_alloc_trace+0x142/0x1c0
[<0000000060740f50>] vhost_vdpa_process_iotlb_msg+0x68c/0x901 [vhost_vdpa]
[<0000000083e8e205>] vhost_chr_write_iter+0xc0/0x4a0 [vhost]
[<000000008f2f414a>] vhost_vdpa_chr_write_iter+0x18/0x20 [vhost_vdpa]
[<00000000de1cd4a0>] vfs_write+0x216/0x4b0
[<00000000a2850200>] ksys_write+0x71/0xf0
[<00000000de8e720b>] __x64_sys_write+0x19/0x20
[<0000000018b12cbb>] do_syscall_64+0x3f/0x90
[<00000000986ec465>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwf…

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-2022-50738 has been found in Kernel.
Attackers can target a specific entry point like use_va over the network to misuse the product.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.0.19, 6.1.5 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2022-50738" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2022-50738 (Kernel)
Attack surface: use_va
Patched: 6.0.19, 6.1.5 — 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 use_va.

📍 Affected scope

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

🔥 Severity

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

🔧 How to fix

Update to 6.0.19, 6.1.5.

🛡️ 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 6.0.19, 6.1.5
```
ステージング環境で 6.0.19, 6.1.5 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":"5.19.0"},{"fixed":"6.0.19"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.1.0"},{"fixed":"6.1.5"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50738 linux Fixed in: 6.1.7-1