Vulnerability Database

374,587

Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2022-50476 — linux / linux_kernel

Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime

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

ntb_netdev: Use dev_kfree_skb_any() in interrupt context

TX/RX callback handlers (ntb_netdev_tx_handler(), ntb_netdev_rx_handler()) can be called in interrupt context via the DMA framework when the respective DMA operations have completed. As such, any calls by these routines to free skb's, should use the interrupt context safe dev_kfree_skb_any() function.

Previously, these callback handlers would call the interrupt unsafe version of dev_kfree_skb(). This has not presented an issue on Intel IOAT DMA engines as that driver utilizes tasklets rather than a hard interrupt handler, like the AMD PTDMA DMA driver. On AMD systems, a kernel WARNING message is encountered, which is being issued from skb_release_head_state() due to in_hardirq() being true.

Besides the user visible WARNING from the kernel, the other symptom of this bug was that TCP/IP performance across the ntb_netdev interface was very poor, i.e. approximately an order of magnitude below what was expected. With the repair to use dev_kfree_skb_any(), kernel WARNINGs from skb_release_head_state() ceased and TCP/IP performance, as measured by iperf, was on par with expected results, approximately 20 Gb/s on AMD Milan based server. Note that this performance is comparable with Intel based servers.

  • Published: Oct 4, 2025
  • Updated: Jan 24, 2026
  • CVE: CVE-2022-50476
  • 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.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

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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