CVE-2022-50738
Vulnerability Scoring
Status: Received on 24 Dec 2025, 13:16 UTC
Published on: 24 Dec 2025, 13:16 UTC
CVSS Release:
CVE-2022-50738: 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_hwframe+0x63/0xcd Let's fix this calling vhost_vdpa_iotlb_unmap() on the whole range in vhost_vdpa_remove_as(). We move that call before vhost_dev_cleanup() since we need a valid v->vdev.mm in vhost_vdpa_pa_unmap(). vhost_iotlb_reset() call can be removed, since vhost_vdpa_iotlb_unmap() on the whole range removes all the entries. The kmemleak log reported was observed with a vDPA device that has `use_va` set to true (e.g. VDUSE). This patch has been tested with both types of devices.
The exploitability of CVE-2022-50738 depends on two key factors: attack complexity (the level of effort required to execute an exploit) and privileges required (the access level an attacker needs).
No exploitability data is available for CVE-2022-50738.
A lower complexity and fewer privilege requirements make exploitation easier. Security teams should evaluate these aspects to determine the urgency of mitigation strategies, such as patch management and access control policies.
Attack Complexity (AC) measures the difficulty in executing an exploit. A high AC means that specific conditions must be met, making an attack more challenging, while a low AC means the vulnerability can be exploited with minimal effort.
Privileges Required (PR) determine the level of system access necessary for an attack. Vulnerabilities requiring no privileges are more accessible to attackers, whereas high privilege requirements limit exploitation to authorized users with elevated access.
Above is the CVSS Sub-score Breakdown for CVE-2022-50738, illustrating how Base, Impact, and Exploitability factors combine to form the overall severity rating. A higher sub-score typically indicates a more severe or easier-to-exploit vulnerability.
Below is the Impact Analysis for CVE-2022-50738, showing how Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability might be affected if the vulnerability is exploited. Higher values usually signal greater potential damage.
Unknown
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