Junglewise Threat Intelligence

CVE-2022-50472: Linux Kernel IB/mad sleep-in-atomic-context in tracepoints

CVE-2022-50472 · Severity: medium · CVSS 5.5 · Published 2025-10-04

Technologies: Linux Kernel. Vendors: Linux.

Executive brief

A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's InfiniBand (IB) subsystem could allow a local user to cause a system crash. The issue occurs when the system attempts to perform diagnostic tracing while handling network management packets. This can lead to an unstable system state or a complete kernel panic, impacting service availability.

Technical details

A bug in the IB/mad component of the Linux kernel arises from calling ib_query_pkey() within an atomic context during tracepoint execution (specifically in ib_mad_recv_done and create_mad_addr_info). Tracepoints are not permitted to sleep, but ib_query_pkey() may trigger a sleep, leading to a kernel 'splat' or warning in rb_commit. A local attacker could potentially trigger this condition to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) via a kernel panic. The fix involves removing the problematic ib_query_pkey() calls from the tracepoint handlers.

Affected products

  • Linux Linux Kernel 5.2 to 5.15.86, 5.16 to 6.0.16, 6.1 to 6.1.2

Timeline

  • 2022-11-10: patched: Mainline patch committed
  • 2025-10-04: disclosed: CVE published

References

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