CVEvulnerability

CVE-2022-50220

7.8 HIGH Published 2025-06-18 Modified 2026-06-17 Official page ↗
Status
Analyzed
Published
2025-06-18
Last modified
2026-06-17
Assigner
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
CVSS 3.1 ([email protected])
7.8 HIGH — CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Weaknesses
CWE-416

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: usbnet: Fix linkwatch use-after-free on disconnect usbnet uses the work usbnet_deferred_kevent() to perform tasks which may sleep. On disconnect, completion of the work was originally awaited in ->ndo_stop(). But in 2003, that was moved to ->disconnect() by historic commit "[PATCH] USB: usbnet, prevent exotic rtnl deadlock": https://git.kernel.org/tglx/history/c/0f138bbfd83c The change was made because back then, the kernel's workqueue implementation did not allow waiting for a single work. One had to wait for completion of *all* work by calling flush_scheduled_work(), and that could deadlock when waiting for usbnet_deferred_kevent() with rtnl_mutex held in ->ndo_stop(). The commit solved one problem but created another: It causes a use-after-free in USB Ethernet drivers aqc111.c, asix_devices.c, ax88179_178a.c, ch9200.c and smsc75xx.c: * If the drivers receive a link change interrupt immediately before disconnect, they raise EVENT_LINK_RESET in their (non-sleepable) ->status() callback and schedule usbnet_deferred_kevent(). * usbnet_deferred_kevent() invokes the driver's ->link_reset() callback, which calls netif_carrier_{on,off}(). * That in turn schedules the work linkwatch_event(). Because usbnet_deferred_kevent() is awaited after unregister_netdev(), netif_carrier_{on,off}() may operate on an unregistered netdev and linkwatch_event() may run after free_netdev(), causing a use-after-free. In 2010, usbnet was changed to only wait for a single instance of usbnet_deferred_kevent() instead of *all* work by commit 23f333a2bfaf ("drivers/net: don't use flush_scheduled_work()"). Unfortunately the commit neglected to move the wait back to ->ndo_stop(). Rectify that omission at long last.

Affected configurations

• linux linux kernel (>= 2.6.38 < 4.9.326) • linux linux kernel (>= 4.10 < 4.14.291) • linux linux kernel (>= 4.15 < 4.19.256) • linux linux kernel (>= 4.20 < 5.4.211) • linux linux kernel (>= 5.5 < 5.10.137) • linux linux kernel (>= 5.11 < 5.15.61) • linux linux kernel (>= 5.16 < 5.18.18) • linux linux kernel (>= 5.19 < 5.19.2)

Related

Weakness · CWE (1)

References