Use After Free in Linux
CVE-2022-50240
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: android: binder: stop saving a pointer to the VMA Do not record a pointer to a VMA outside of the mmap_lock for later use. This is unsafe and there are a number of failure paths *after* the recorded VMA pointer may be freed during setup. There is no callback to the driver to clear the saved pointer from generic mm code. Furthermore, the VMA pointer may become stale if any number of VMA operations end up freeing the VMA so saving it was fragile to being with. Instead, change the binder_alloc struct to record the start address of the VMA and use vma_lookup() to get the vma when needed. Add lockdep mmap_lock checks on updates to the vma pointer to ensure the lock is held and depend on that lock for synchronization of readers and writers - which was already the case anyways, so the smp_wmb()/smp_rmb() was not necessary. [akpm@linux-foundation.org: fix drivers/android/binder_alloc_selftest.c]
Vulnerability class: Use-After-Free
EPSS: 0.002 (5.0th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
Affected products
- Linux — versions dd2283f2605e3b3e9c61bcae844b34f2afa4813f, 4.20, 0
- Linux Linux_kernel
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2022-50240?
- CVE-2022-50240 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under Use After Free. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2025-09-15.
- How severe is CVE-2022-50240?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.