Linux Kernel up to 6.0.18/6.1.4 cancel_delayed_work_sync null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.0.18/6.1.4. This affects the function cancel_delayed_work_sync. The manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2022-50441. No exploit exists. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.0.18/6.1.4. It has been rated as critical. This issue affects the function cancel_delayed_work_sync. 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. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5: Lag, fix failure to cancel delayed bond work Commit 0d4e8ed139d8 ("net/mlx5: Lag, avoid lockdep warnings") accidentally removed a call to cancel delayed bond work thus it may cause queued delay to expire and fall on an already destroyed work queue. Fix by restoring the call cancel_delayed_work_sync() before destroying the workqueue. This prevents call trace such as this: [ 329.230417] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 [ 329.231444] #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode [ 329.232233] #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page [ 329.233007] PGD 0 P4D 0 [ 329.233476] Oops: 0002 [#1] SMP [ 329.234012] CPU: 5 PID: 145 Comm: kworker/u20:4 Tainted: G OE 6.0.0-rc5_mlnx #1 [ 329.235282] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.13.0-0-gf21b5a4aeb02-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [ 329.236868] Workqueue: mlx5_cmd_0000:08:00.1 cmd_work_handler [mlx5_core] [ 329.237886] RIP: 0010:_raw_spin_lock+0xc/0x20 [ 329.238585] Code: f0 0f b1 17 75 02 f3 c3 89 c6 e9 6f 3c 5f ff 66 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 40 00 0f 1f 44 00 00 31 c0 ba 01 00 00 00 <f0> 0f b1 17 75 02 f3 c3 89 c6 e9 45 3c 5f ff 0f 1f 44 00 00 0f 1f [ 329.241156] RSP: 0018:ffffc900001b0e98 EFLAGS: 00010046 [ 329.241940] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffffffff82374ae0 RCX: 0000000000000000 [ 329.242954] RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: 0000000000000014 RDI: 0000000000000000 [ 329.243974] RBP: ffff888106ccf000 R08: ffff8881004000c8 R09: ffff888100400000 [ 329.244990] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: ffffffff826669f8 R12: 0000000000002000 [ 329.246009] R13: 0000000000000005 R14: ffff888100aa7ce0 R15: ffff88852ca80000 [ 329.247030] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88852ca80000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 329.248260] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 329.249111] CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 000000016d675001 CR4: 0000000000770ee0 [ 329.250133] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 [ 329.251152] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 [ 329.252176] PKRU: 55555554

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2022-50441 since 09/17/2025. The exploitation is known to be difficult. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

Upgrading to version 6.0.19 or 6.1.5 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 5df57bb04e91add52fb67e226209df9a17f06a89/8f1b8b3133504bf9125ee507ddcc3a8fb41a41f0/4d1c1379d71777ddeda3e54f8fc26e9ecbfd1009 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 vulnerability database at CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2187). 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
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• 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
• 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
• 6.0.17
• 6.0.18
• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1
• 6.1.2
• 6.1.3
• 6.1.4

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Exploitinginfo

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Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

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

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