Linux Kernel up to 5.15.74/6.0.3 io_wqe memory leak

CVSS Meta Temp Score
CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.
Current Exploit Price (≈)
Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.
CTI Interest Score
Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
4.6$0-$5k0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.74/6.0.3. This impacts the function io_wqe. Such manipulation leads to memory leak. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2022-50639. There is no exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.74/6.0.3 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is the function io_wqe. 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: io-wq: Fix memory leak in worker creation If the CPU mask allocation for a node fails, then the memory allocated for the 'io_wqe' struct of the current node doesn't get freed on the error handling path, since it has not yet been added to the 'wqes' array. This was spotted when fuzzing v6.1-rc1 with Syzkaller: BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xffff8880093d5000 (size 1024): comm "syz-executor.2", pid 7701, jiffies 4295048595 (age 13.900s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: [<00000000cb463369>] __kmem_cache_alloc_node+0x18e/0x720 [<00000000147a3f9c>] kmalloc_node_trace+0x2a/0x130 [<000000004e107011>] io_wq_create+0x7b9/0xdc0 [<00000000c38b2018>] io_uring_alloc_task_context+0x31e/0x59d [<00000000867399da>] __io_uring_add_tctx_node.cold+0x19/0x1ba [<000000007e0e7a79>] io_uring_setup.cold+0x1b80/0x1dce [<00000000b545e9f6>] __x64_sys_io_uring_setup+0x5d/0x80 [<000000008a8a7508>] do_syscall_64+0x5d/0x90 [<000000004ac08bec>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2022-50639 since 12/09/2025. 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 278037 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2022-50639), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.15.75 or 6.0.4 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch b6e2c54be37d5eb4f6666e6aa59cd0581c7ffc3c/ed981911a7c90a604f4a2bee908ab07e3b786aca/996d3efeb091c503afd3ee6b5e20eabf446fd955 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 (278037) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2765). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Affected

  • Debian Linux
  • Amazon Linux 2
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  • Ubuntu Linux
  • SUSE Linux
  • Oracle Linux
  • SUSE openSUSE
  • Open Source Linux Kernel
  • RESF Rocky Linux

Productinfo

Type

Vendor

Name

Version

License

Website

CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 4.8
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 4.6

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

CVSSv2info

AVACAuCIA
💳💳💳💳💳💳
💳💳💳💳💳💳
💳💳💳💳💳💳
VectorComplexityAuthenticationConfidentialityIntegrityAvailability
UnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock
UnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock
UnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock

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

Exploitinginfo

Class: Memory leak
CWE: CWE-401 / CWE-404
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: No
Local: No
Remote: Partially

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔒
EPSS Percentile: 🔒

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

0-DayUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock
TodayUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock

Nessus ID: 278037
Nessus Name: Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2022-50639

Threat Intelligenceinfo

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

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 5.15.75/6.0.4
Patch: b6e2c54be37d5eb4f6666e6aa59cd0581c7ffc3c/ed981911a7c90a604f4a2bee908ab07e3b786aca/996d3efeb091c503afd3ee6b5e20eabf446fd955

Timelineinfo

12/09/2025 Advisory disclosed
12/09/2025 +0 days CVE reserved
12/09/2025 +0 days VulDB entry created
03/28/2026 +109 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2022-50639 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2022-50639
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-334904
CERT Bund: WID-SEC-2025-2765 - Linux Kernel: Mehrere Schwachstellen erm&ouml;glichen Denial of Service

Entryinfo

Created: 12/09/2025 07:42
Updated: 03/28/2026 13:23
Changes: 12/09/2025 07:42 (58), 12/09/2025 08:27 (1), 12/10/2025 13:22 (2), 03/28/2026 13:23 (7)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216:8AB:103

Discussion

No comments yet. Languages: en.

Please log in to comment.

Might our Artificial Intelligence support you?

Check our Alexa App!