NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2022-50452

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: sched: cake: fix null pointer access issue when cake_init() fails When the default qdisc is cake, if the qdisc of dev_queue fails to be inited during mqprio_init(), cake_reset() is invoked to clear resources. In this case, the tins is NULL, and it will cause gpf issue. The process is as follows: qdisc_create_dflt() cake_init() q->tins = kvcalloc(...) --->failed, q->tins is NULL ... qdisc_put() ... cake_reset() ... cake_dequeue_one() b = &q->tins[...] --->q->tins is NULL The following is the Call Trace information: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000000: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007] RIP: 0010:cake_dequeue_one+0xc9/0x3c0 Call Trace: <TASK> cake_reset+0xb1/0x140 qdisc_reset+0xed/0x6f0 qdisc_destroy+0x82/0x4c0 qdisc_put+0x9e/0xb0 qdisc_create_dflt+0x2c3/0x4a0 mqprio_init+0xa71/0x1760 qdisc_create+0x3eb/0x1000 tc_modify_qdisc+0x408/0x1720 rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x38e/0xac0 netlink_rcv_skb+0x12d/0x3a0 netlink_unicast+0x4a2/0x740 netlink_sendmsg+0x826/0xcc0 sock_sendmsg+0xc5/0x100 ____sys_sendmsg+0x583/0x690 ___sys_sendmsg+0xe8/0x160 __sys_sendmsg+0xbf/0x160 do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0 RIP: 0033:0x7f89e5122d04 </TASK>

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (4.1th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 4th percentile — 4.1% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2022-50452: held from 0.002 to 0.002.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.002 · change: 0.000

Affected products

  • Linux — versions 046f6fd5daefac7f5abdafb436b30f63bc7c602b, 4.19, 0
  • Linux Kernel — versions 6.1

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2022-50452?
CVE-2022-50452 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2025-10-01.
How severe is CVE-2022-50452?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.