CVEvulnerability
CVE-2022-50220
7.8 HIGH
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)
- CWE-416 Use After Free weakness
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/135199a2edd459d2b123144efcd7f9bcd95128e4 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/635fd8953e4309b54ca6a81bed1d4a87668694f4 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7f77dcbc030c2faa6d8e8a594985eeb34018409e Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8b4588b8b00b299be16a35be67b331d8fdba03f3 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a69e617e533edddf3fa3123149900f36e0a6dc74 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d2d6b530d89b0a912148018027386aa049f0a309 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d49bb8cf9bfaa06aa527eb30f1a52a071da2e32f Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/db3b738ae5f726204876f4303c49cfdf4311403f Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e2a521a7dcc463c5017b4426ca0804e151faeff7 Patch