CVE-2022-50342
BaseFortify
Publication date: 2025-09-16
Last updated on: 2025-12-01
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | From 5.11 (inc) to 5.15.86 (exc) |
| linux | linux_kernel | From 5.16 (inc) to 6.0.16 (exc) |
| linux | linux_kernel | From 6.1 (inc) to 6.1.2 (exc) |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-401 | The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, making the memory unavailable for reallocation and reuse. |
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?
This vulnerability is a memory leak in the Linux kernel's floppy disk initialization code. Specifically, when the function floppy_alloc_disk() fails during the initialization process in do_floppy_init(), the allocated memory tag set for the current drive is not freed properly. This happens because the disks of the current drive are not set, causing the error handling path to skip freeing the latest allocated tag set, resulting in a memory leak. The issue was fixed by ensuring the tag set is freed before jumping to the error handling path.
How can this vulnerability impact me? :
The memory leak caused by this vulnerability can lead to increased memory usage in the Linux kernel when floppy disk initialization fails. Over time, this could degrade system performance or stability due to wasted memory resources. However, since this issue occurs specifically during floppy disk initialization failure, its impact may be limited to systems that use floppy drives or related modules.
What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?
The vulnerability is fixed by updating the Linux kernel to a version where the memory leak in do_floppy_init() is resolved. Specifically, the fix involves freeing the set->tag of the current drive before jumping to the error handling path in floppy_alloc_disk(). Therefore, immediate mitigation is to apply the kernel update or patch that includes this fix.