Linux Kernel up to 6.1.2 md_end_flush null pointer dereference

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5.0	$0-$5k	0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.2 and classified as critical. This impacts the function md_end_flush. This manipulation causes null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2022-50381. No exploit exists. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.2. It has been declared as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function md_end_flush. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is 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. As an impact it is known to affect availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: md: fix a crash in mempool_free There's a crash in mempool_free when running the lvm test shell/lvchange-rebuild-raid.sh. The reason for the crash is this: * super_written calls atomic_dec_and_test(&mddev->pending_writes) and wake_up(&mddev->sb_wait). Then it calls rdev_dec_pending(rdev, mddev) and bio_put(bio). * so, the process that waited on sb_wait and that is woken up is racing with bio_put(bio). * if the process wins the race, it calls bioset_exit before bio_put(bio) is executed. * bio_put(bio) attempts to free a bio into a destroyed bio set - causing a crash in mempool_free. We fix this bug by moving bio_put before atomic_dec_and_test. We also move rdev_dec_pending before atomic_dec_and_test as suggested by Neil Brown. The function md_end_flush has a similar bug - we must call bio_put before we decrement the number of in-progress bios. BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page PGD 11557f0067 P4D 11557f0067 PUD 0 Oops: 0002 [#1] PREEMPT SMP CPU: 0 PID: 73 Comm: kworker/0:1 Not tainted 6.1.0-rc3 #5 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.14.0-2 04/01/2014 Workqueue: kdelayd flush_expired_bios [dm_delay] RIP: 0010:mempool_free+0x47/0x80 Code: 48 89 ef 5b 5d ff e0 f3 c3 48 89 f7 e8 32 45 3f 00 48 63 53 08 48 89 c6 3b 53 04 7d 2d 48 8b 43 10 8d 4a 01 48 89 df 89 4b 08 <48> 89 2c d0 e8 b0 45 3f 00 48 8d 7b 30 5b 5d 31 c9 ba 01 00 00 00 RSP: 0018:ffff88910036bda8 EFLAGS: 00010093 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff8891037b65d8 RCX: 0000000000000001 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000202 RDI: ffff8891037b65d8 RBP: ffff8891447ba240 R08: 0000000000012908 R09: 00000000003d0900 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000173544 R12: ffff889101a14000 R13: ffff8891562ac300 R14: ffff889102b41440 R15: ffffe8ffffa00d05 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88942fa00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 0000001102e99000 CR4: 00000000000006b0 Call Trace: <TASK> clone_endio+0xf4/0x1c0 [dm_mod] clone_endio+0xf4/0x1c0 [dm_mod] __submit_bio+0x76/0x120 submit_bio_noacct_nocheck+0xb6/0x2a0 flush_expired_bios+0x28/0x2f [dm_delay] process_one_work+0x1b4/0x300 worker_thread+0x45/0x3e0 ? rescuer_thread+0x380/0x380 kthread+0xc2/0x100 ? kthread_complete_and_exit+0x20/0x20 ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30 </TASK> Modules linked in: brd dm_delay dm_raid dm_mod af_packet uvesafb cfbfillrect cfbimgblt cn cfbcopyarea fb font fbdev tun autofs4 binfmt_misc configfs ipv6 virtio_rng virtio_balloon rng_core virtio_net pcspkr net_failover failover qemu_fw_cfg button mousedev raid10 raid456 libcrc32c async_raid6_recov async_memcpy async_pq raid6_pq async_xor xor async_tx raid1 raid0 md_mod sd_mod t10_pi crc64_rocksoft crc64 virtio_scsi scsi_mod evdev psmouse bsg scsi_common [last unloaded: brd] CR2: 0000000000000000 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2022-50381 since 09/17/2025. The exploitation appears to be difficult. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 265568 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2022-50381), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 4.9.337, 4.14.303, 4.19.270, 5.4.229, 5.10.163, 5.15.87, 6.0.17 or 6.1.3 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 732cd66ec19a17f2b9183d7d5b7bdb9c39b0776e/cf06b162f5b6337b688072a1a47941280b8f7110/b5be563b4356b3089b3245d024cae3f248ba7090/384ef33d37cefb2ac539d44597d03f06c9b8975c/ae7793027766491c5f8635b12d15a5940d3b8698/91bd504128a51776472445070e11a3b0f9348c90/842f222fc42a9239831e15b1fd49a51c546902cb/97ce99984be12b9acb49ddce0f5d8ebb037adbb6/341097ee53573e06ab9fc675d96a052385b851fa 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 (265568) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2092). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Affected

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

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 4.9.336
• 4.14.302
• 4.19.269
• 5.4.228
• 5.10.162
• 5.15.0
• 5.15.1
• 5.15.2
• 5.15.3
• 5.15.4
• 5.15.5
• 5.15.6
• 5.15.7
• 5.15.8
• 5.15.9
• 5.15.10
• 5.15.11
• 5.15.12
• 5.15.13
• 5.15.14
• 5.15.15
• 5.15.16
• 5.15.17
• 5.15.18
• 5.15.19
• 5.15.20
• 5.15.21
• 5.15.22
• 5.15.23
• 5.15.24
• 5.15.25
• 5.15.26
• 5.15.27
• 5.15.28
• 5.15.29
• 5.15.30
• 5.15.31
• 5.15.32
• 5.15.33
• 5.15.34
• 5.15.35
• 5.15.36
• 5.15.37
• 5.15.38
• 5.15.39
• 5.15.40
• 5.15.41
• 5.15.42
• 5.15.43
• 5.15.44
• 5.15.45
• 5.15.46
• 5.15.47
• 5.15.48
• 5.15.49
• 5.15.50
• 5.15.51
• 5.15.52
• 5.15.53
• 5.15.54
• 5.15.55
• 5.15.56
• 5.15.57
• 5.15.58
• 5.15.59
• 5.15.60
• 5.15.61
• 5.15.62
• 5.15.63
• 5.15.64
• 5.15.65
• 5.15.66
• 5.15.67
• 5.15.68
• 5.15.69
• 5.15.70
• 5.15.71
• 5.15.72
• 5.15.73
• 5.15.74
• 5.15.75
• 5.15.76
• 5.15.77
• 5.15.78
• 5.15.79
• 5.15.80
• 5.15.81
• 5.15.82
• 5.15.83
• 5.15.84
• 5.15.85
• 5.15.86
• 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
• 6.0.16
• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1
• 6.1.2

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
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CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
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CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 5.1
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 5.0

VulDB Base Score: 4.8
VulDB Temp Score: 4.6
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

NVD Base Score: 5.5
NVD Vector: 🔒

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳

Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
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Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔒
VulDB Temp Score: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Null pointer dereference
CWE: CWE-476 / CWE-404
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: Partially

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔒
EPSS Percentile: 🔒

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Today	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

Nessus ID: 265568
Nessus Name: Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2022-50381

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 4.9.337/4.14.303/4.19.270/5.4.229/5.10.163/5.15.87/6.0.17/6.1.3
Patch: 732cd66ec19a17f2b9183d7d5b7bdb9c39b0776e/cf06b162f5b6337b688072a1a47941280b8f7110/b5be563b4356b3089b3245d024cae3f248ba7090/384ef33d37cefb2ac539d44597d03f06c9b8975c/ae7793027766491c5f8635b12d15a5940d3b8698/91bd504128a51776472445070e11a3b0f9348c90/842f222fc42a9239831e15b1fd49a51c546902cb/97ce99984be12b9acb49ddce0f5d8ebb037adbb6/341097ee53573e06ab9fc675d96a052385b851fa

Timelineinfo

09/17/2025 CVE reserved
09/18/2025 +1 days Advisory disclosed
09/18/2025 +0 days VulDB entry created
12/11/2025 +84 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2022-50381 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2022-50381
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-324817
CERT Bund: WID-SEC-2025-2092 - Linux Kernel: Mehrere Schwachstellen erm&ouml;glichen Denial of Service

Entryinfo

Created: 09/18/2025 16:16
Updated: 12/11/2025 21:31
Changes: 09/18/2025 16:16 (58), 09/19/2025 12:54 (7), 09/20/2025 21:53 (2), 11/29/2025 11:28 (1), 12/11/2025 21:31 (12)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Discussion

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