Linux Kernel up to 6.1.1 regulator regulator_register memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 5.4.228/5.10.162/5.15.85/6.0.15/6.1.1. The affected element is the function regulator_register of the component regulator. This manipulation causes memory leak. This vulnerability is registered as CVE-2022-50724. No exploit is available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.4.228/5.10.162/5.15.85/6.0.15/6.1.1. Affected by this vulnerability is the function regulator_register of the component regulator. 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: regulator: core: fix resource leak in regulator_register() I got some resource leak reports while doing fault injection test: OF: ERROR: memory leak, expected refcount 1 instead of 100, of_node_get()/of_node_put() unbalanced - destroy cset entry: attach overlay node /i2c/pmic@64/regulators/buck1 unreferenced object 0xffff88810deea000 (size 512): comm "490-i2c-rt5190a", pid 253, jiffies 4294859840 (age 5061.046s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 ad 4e ad de ff ff ff ff 00 00 00 00 .....N.......... ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff a0 1e 00 a1 ff ff ff ff ................ backtrace: [<00000000d78541e2>] kmalloc_trace+0x21/0x110 [<00000000b343d153>] device_private_init+0x32/0xd0 [<00000000be1f0c70>] device_add+0xb2d/0x1030 [<00000000e3e6344d>] regulator_register+0xaf2/0x12a0 [<00000000e2f5e754>] devm_regulator_register+0x57/0xb0 [<000000008b898197>] rt5190a_probe+0x52a/0x861 [rt5190a_regulator] unreferenced object 0xffff88810b617b80 (size 32): comm "490-i2c-rt5190a", pid 253, jiffies 4294859904 (age 5060.983s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 72 65 67 75 6c 61 74 6f 72 2e 32 38 36 38 2d 53 regulator.2868-S 55 50 50 4c 59 00 ff ff 29 00 00 00 2b 00 00 00 UPPLY...)...+... backtrace: [<000000009da9280d>] __kmalloc_node_track_caller+0x44/0x1b0 [<0000000025c6a4e5>] kstrdup+0x3a/0x70 [<00000000790efb69>] create_regulator+0xc0/0x4e0 [<0000000005ed203a>] regulator_resolve_supply+0x2d4/0x440 [<0000000045796214>] regulator_register+0x10b3/0x12a0 [<00000000e2f5e754>] devm_regulator_register+0x57/0xb0 [<000000008b898197>] rt5190a_probe+0x52a/0x861 [rt5190a_regulator] After calling regulator_resolve_supply(), the 'rdev->supply' is set by set_supply(), after this set, in the error path, the resources need be released, so call regulator_put() to avoid the leaks.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2022-50724 since 12/24/2025. The exploitation appears to be difficult. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 279862 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2022-50724), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.4.229, 5.10.163, 5.15.86, 6.0.16 or 6.1.2 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 35593d60b1622834984c43add7646d4069671aa9/6a03c31d08f95dca9633a552de167b9e625833a8/c4c64d8abd656b9807b63178750fa91454602b86/90b713aadc1240bf2dd03d610d6c1d016a9123a2/f86b2f216636790d5922458578825e4628fb570f/ba62319a42c50e6254e98b3f316464fac8e77968 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 (279862) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2929). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Affected

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

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 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
• 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
• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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