CVE-2022-50661

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: seccomp: Move copy_seccomp() to no failure path. Our syzbot instance reported memory leaks in do_seccomp() [0], similar to the report [1]. It shows that we miss freeing struct seccomp_filter and some objects included in it. We can reproduce the issue with the program below [2] which calls one seccomp() and two clone() syscalls. The first clone()d child exits earlier than its parent and sends a signal to kill it during the second clone(), more precisely before the fatal_signal_pending() test in copy_process(). When the parent receives the signal, it has to destroy the embryonic process and return -EINTR to user space. In the failure path, we have to call seccomp_filter_release() to decrement the filter's refcount. Initially, we called it in free_task() called from the failure path, but the commit 3a15fb6ed92c ("seccomp: release filter after task is fully dead") moved it to release_task() to notify user space as early as possible that the filter is no longer used. To keep the change and current seccomp refcount semantics, let's move copy_seccomp() just after the signal check and add a WARN_ON_ONCE() in free_task() for future debugging. [0]: unreferenced object 0xffff8880063add00 (size 256): comm "repro_seccomp", pid 230, jiffies 4294687090 (age 9.914s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ................ backtrace: do_seccomp (./include/linux/slab.h:600 ./include/linux/slab.h:733 kernel/seccomp.c:666 kernel/seccomp.c:708 kernel/seccomp.c:1871 kernel/seccomp.c:1991) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:120) unreferenced object 0xffffc90000035000 (size 4096): comm "repro_seccomp", pid 230, jiffies 4294687090 (age 9.915s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 05 00 00 00 ................ 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: __vmalloc_node_range (mm/vmalloc.c:3226) __vmalloc_node (mm/vmalloc.c:3261 (discriminator 4)) bpf_prog_alloc_no_stats (kernel/bpf/core.c:91) bpf_prog_alloc (kernel/bpf/core.c:129) bpf_prog_create_from_user (net/core/filter.c:1414) do_seccomp (kernel/seccomp.c:671 kernel/seccomp.c:708 kernel/seccomp.c:1871 kernel/seccomp.c:1991) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:120) unreferenced object 0xffff888003fa1000 (size 1024): comm "repro_seccomp", pid 230, jiffies 4294687090 (age 9.915s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: bpf_prog_alloc_no_stats (./include/linux/slab.h:600 ./include/linux/slab.h:733 kernel/bpf/core.c:95) bpf_prog_alloc (kernel/bpf/core.c:129) bpf_prog_create_from_user (net/core/filter.c:1414) do_seccomp (kernel/seccomp.c:671 kernel/seccomp.c:708 kernel/seccomp.c:1871 kernel/seccomp.c:1991) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:120) unreferenced object 0xffff888006360240 (size 16): comm "repro_seccomp", pid 230, jiffies 4294687090 (age 9.915s) hex dump (first 16 bytes): 01 00 37 00 76 65 72 6c e0 83 01 06 80 88 ff ff ..7.verl........ backtrace: bpf_prog_store_orig_filter (net/core/filter.c:1137) bpf_prog_create_from_user (net/core/filter.c:1428) do_seccomp (kernel/seccomp.c:671 kernel/seccomp.c:708 kernel/seccomp.c:1871 kernel/seccomp.c:1991) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:120) unreferenced object 0xffff888 ---truncated---

Package Linux Kernel
Published 2025-12-09
Last modified 2026-04-15
Patch available
Yes

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 5.9 and later are affected. Fixed in 5.10.180, 5.15.86, 6.0.16, 6.1.2, 6.2 and their respective stable series.

Affected from
≥ 5.9
Fixed in
✓ 5.10.180 5.10.x ✓ 5.15.86 5.15.x ✓ 6.0.16 6.0.x ✓ 6.1.2 6.1.x ✓ 6.2

References

The following references provide additional information about CVE-2022-50661 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.

Frequently asked questions

  • What is CVE-2022-50661?

    CVE-2022-50661 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability . It affects Linux kernel versions from 5.9 onward and has been patched in 5.10.180, 5.15.86, 6.0.16 and others. CVE-2022-50661 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

  • Is there a patch available for CVE-2022-50661?

    Yes — CVE-2022-50661 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.10.180, 5.15.86, 6.0.16 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 5.9 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

  • Is CVE-2022-50661 actively exploited?

    No — CVE-2022-50661 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.