Linux Kernel up to 6.0.5 cifs mempool_alloc memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.0.5. Affected by this vulnerability is the function mempool_alloc of the component cifs. Such manipulation leads to memory leak. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2022-50372. There is no available exploit. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.0.5 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is the function mempool_alloc of the component cifs. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. Impacted is availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cifs: Fix memory leak when build ntlmssp negotiate blob failed There is a memory leak when mount cifs: unreferenced object 0xffff888166059600 (size 448): comm "mount.cifs", pid 51391, jiffies 4295596373 (age 330.596s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): fe 53 4d 42 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 82 00 .SMB@........... 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: [<0000000060609a61>] mempool_alloc+0xe1/0x260 [<00000000adfa6c63>] cifs_small_buf_get+0x24/0x60 [<00000000ebb404c7>] __smb2_plain_req_init+0x32/0x460 [<00000000bcf875b4>] SMB2_sess_alloc_buffer+0xa4/0x3f0 [<00000000753a2987>] SMB2_sess_auth_rawntlmssp_negotiate+0xf5/0x480 [<00000000f0c1f4f9>] SMB2_sess_setup+0x253/0x410 [<00000000a8b83303>] cifs_setup_session+0x18f/0x4c0 [<00000000854bd16d>] cifs_get_smb_ses+0xae7/0x13c0 [<000000006cbc43d9>] mount_get_conns+0x7a/0x730 [<000000005922d816>] cifs_mount+0x103/0xd10 [<00000000e33def3b>] cifs_smb3_do_mount+0x1dd/0xc90 [<0000000078034979>] smb3_get_tree+0x1d5/0x300 [<000000004371f980>] vfs_get_tree+0x41/0xf0 [<00000000b670d8a7>] path_mount+0x9b3/0xdd0 [<000000005e839a7d>] __x64_sys_mount+0x190/0x1d0 [<000000009404c3b9>] do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80 When build ntlmssp negotiate blob failed, the session setup request should be freed.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2022-50372 since 09/17/2025. The exploitation is known to be difficult. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 265628 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2022-50372), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.0.6 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch fa5a70bdd5e565c8696fb04dfe18a4e8aff4695d/30b2d7f8f13664655480d6af45f60270b3eb6736 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 (265628) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2087). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Affected

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

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

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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