Linux Kernel up to 6.0.17/6.1.3 ima __ima_inode_hash memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.0.17/6.1.3. Impacted is the function __ima_inode_hash of the component ima. This manipulation causes memory leak. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2022-50577. There is no available exploit. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.0.17/6.1.3 and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function __ima_inode_hash of the component ima. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. As an impact it is known to affect availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ima: Fix memory leak in __ima_inode_hash() Commit f3cc6b25dcc5 ("ima: always measure and audit files in policy") lets measurement or audit happen even if the file digest cannot be calculated. As a result, iint->ima_hash could have been allocated despite ima_collect_measurement() returning an error. Since ima_hash belongs to a temporary inode metadata structure, declared at the beginning of __ima_inode_hash(), just add a kfree() call if ima_collect_measurement() returns an error different from -ENOMEM (in that case, ima_hash should not have been allocated).

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2022-50577 since 10/22/2025. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

Upgrading to version 6.0.18 or 6.1.4 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch c4df8cb38f139ed9f4296868c0a6f15a26e8c491/f375bcf69f58fd0744c9dfd1b6b891a27301d67b/8c1d6a050a0f16e0a9d32eaf53b965c77279c6f8 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-2025-2394). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• Dell NetWorker

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
• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1
• 6.1.2
• 6.1.3

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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