Vulnerability Database

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Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2022-50344 — linux / linux_kernel

NULL Pointer Dereference

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ext4: fix null-ptr-deref in ext4_write_info

I caught a null-ptr-deref bug as follows:

KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000068-0x000000000000006f] CPU: 1 PID: 1589 Comm: umount Not tainted 5.10.0-02219-dirty #339 RIP: 0010:ext4_write_info+0x53/0x1b0 [...] Call Trace: dquot_writeback_dquots+0x341/0x9a0 ext4_sync_fs+0x19e/0x800 __sync_filesystem+0x83/0x100 sync_filesystem+0x89/0xf0 generic_shutdown_super+0x79/0x3e0 kill_block_super+0xa1/0x110 deactivate_locked_super+0xac/0x130 deactivate_super+0xb6/0xd0 cleanup_mnt+0x289/0x400 __cleanup_mnt+0x16/0x20 task_work_run+0x11c/0x1c0 exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0x203/0x210 syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x5b/0x3a0 do_syscall_64+0x59/0x70 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xa9

Above issue may happen as follows:

exit_to_user_mode_prepare task_work_run __cleanup_mnt cleanup_mnt deactivate_super deactivate_locked_super kill_block_super generic_shutdown_super shrink_dcache_for_umount dentry = sb->s_root sb->s_root = NULL <--- Here set NULL sync_filesystem __sync_filesystem sb->s_op->sync_fs > ext4_sync_fs dquot_writeback_dquots sb->dq_op->write_info > ext4_write_info ext4_journal_start(d_inode(sb->s_root), EXT4_HT_QUOTA, 2) d_inode(sb->s_root) s_root->d_inode <--- Null pointer dereference

To solve this problem, we use ext4_journal_start_sb directly to avoid s_root being used.

  • Published: Sep 16, 2025
  • Updated: Dec 2, 2025
  • CVE: CVE-2022-50344
  • Severity: Medium
  • Exploit:
  • CISA KEV:

CVSS v3:

  • Severity: Medium
  • Score: 5.5
  • AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CWEs:

Frequently Asked Questions

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

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Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

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