NULL pointer dereference in Linux
CVE-2022-50453
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: gpiolib: cdev: fix NULL-pointer dereferences There are several places where we can crash the kernel by requesting lines, unbinding the GPIO device, then calling any of the system calls relevant to the GPIO character device's annonymous file descriptors: ioctl(), read(), poll(). While I observed it with the GPIO simulator, it will also happen for any of the GPIO devices that can be hot-unplugged - for instance any HID GPIO expander (e.g. CP2112). This affects both v1 and v2 uAPI. This fixes it partially by checking if gdev->chip is not NULL but it doesn't entirely remedy the situation as we still have a race condition in which another thread can remove the device after the check.
EPSS: 0.001 (4.6th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
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.
Affected products
- Linux — versions d7c51b47ac11e66f547b55640405c1c474642d72, 4.8, 0
- Linux Linux_kernel
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2022-50453?
- CVE-2022-50453 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-2022-50453?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.