Vulnerability Database

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Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2022-50428 — linux / linux_kernel

Off-by-one Error

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

ext4: fix off-by-one errors in fast-commit block filling

Due to several different off-by-one errors, or perhaps due to a late change in design that wasn't fully reflected in the code that was actually merged, there are several very strange constraints on how fast-commit blocks are filled with tlv entries:

  • tlvs must start at least 10 bytes before the end of the block, even though the minimum tlv length is 8. Otherwise, the replay code will ignore them. (BUG: ext4_fc_reserve_space() could violate this requirement if called with a len of blocksize - 9 or blocksize - 8. Fortunately, this doesn't seem to happen currently.)

  • tlvs must end at least 1 byte before the end of the block. Otherwise the replay code will consider them to be invalid. This quirk contributed to a bug (fixed by an earlier commit) where uninitialized memory was being leaked to disk in the last byte of blocks.

Also, strangely these constraints don't apply to the replay code in e2fsprogs, which will accept any tlvs in the blocks (with no bounds checks at all, but that is a separate issue...).

Given that this all seems to be a bug, let's fix it by just filling blocks with tlv entries in the natural way.

Note that old kernels will be unable to replay fast-commit journals created by kernels that have this commit.

  • Published: Oct 1, 2025
  • Updated: Jan 21, 2026
  • CVE: CVE-2022-50428
  • 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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