NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2022-50459

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: scsi: iscsi: iscsi_tcp: Fix null-ptr-deref while calling getpeername() Fix a NULL pointer crash that occurs when we are freeing the socket at the same time we access it via sysfs. The problem is that: 1. iscsi_sw_tcp_conn_get_param() and iscsi_sw_tcp_host_get_param() take the frwd_lock and do sock_hold() then drop the frwd_lock. sock_hold() does a get on the "struct sock". 2. iscsi_sw_tcp_release_conn() does sockfd_put() which does the last put on the "struct socket" and that does __sock_release() which sets the sock->ops to NULL. 3. iscsi_sw_tcp_conn_get_param() and iscsi_sw_tcp_host_get_param() then call kernel_getpeername() which accesses the NULL sock->ops. Above we do a get on the "struct sock", but we needed a get on the "struct socket". Originally, we just held the frwd_lock the entire time but in commit bcf3a2953d36 ("scsi: iscsi: iscsi_tcp: Avoid holding spinlock while calling getpeername()") we switched to refcount based because the network layer changed and started taking a mutex in that path, so we could no longer hold the frwd_lock. Instead of trying to maintain multiple refcounts, this just has us use a mutex for accessing the socket in the interface code paths.

EPSS: 0.002 (4.9th 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 7d29e950766327f658cb92722b9445ac3b3ae023, bcf3a2953d36bbfb9bd44ccb3db0897d935cc485, 5.15.75
  • Linux Linux_kernel — versions 5.9

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2022-50459?
CVE-2022-50459 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2025-10-01.
How severe is CVE-2022-50459?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.