Linux Kernel up to 6.0.15/6.1.1 kill_kprobe null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.0.15/6.1.1 and classified as critical. This issue affects the function kill_kprobe. Such manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2022-50266. No exploit is available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.0.15/6.1.1. Affected by this issue is the function kill_kprobe. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. Impacted is availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: kprobes: Fix check for probe enabled in kill_kprobe() In kill_kprobe(), the check whether disarm_kprobe_ftrace() needs to be called always fails. This is because before that we set the KPROBE_FLAG_GONE flag for kprobe so that "!kprobe_disabled(p)" is always false. The disarm_kprobe_ftrace() call introduced by commit: 0cb2f1372baa ("kprobes: Fix NULL pointer dereference at kprobe_ftrace_handler") to fix the NULL pointer reference problem. When the probe is enabled, if we do not disarm it, this problem still exists. Fix it by putting the probe enabled check before setting the KPROBE_FLAG_GONE flag.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2022-50266 since 09/15/2025. The exploitation is known to be difficult. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 278484 (EulerOS 2.0 SP13 : kernel (EulerOS-SA-2025-2501)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.0.16 or 6.1.2 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch f20a067f13106565816b4b6a6b665b2088a63824/c909985dd0c0f74b61e3f8f0e04bf8aa9c8b97c7/0c76ef3f26d5ef2ac2c21b47e7620cff35809fbb is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (278484) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2053). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• SUSE openSUSE
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway
• F5 F5OS

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.0.0
• 6.0.1
• 6.0.2
• 6.0.3
• 6.0.4
• 6.0.5
• 6.0.6
• 6.0.7
• 6.0.8
• 6.0.9
• 6.0.10
• 6.0.11
• 6.0.12
• 6.0.13
• 6.0.14
• 6.0.15
• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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