CVE-2022-50396
kernel: net: sched: fix memory leak in tcindex_set_parms
Severity
ModerateRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 3.1
Review impact separately from score.
Published · September 18, 2025
Updated · June 30, 2026
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net: sched: fix memory leak in tcindex_set_parms
Syzkaller reports a memory leak as follows:
BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xffff88810c287f00 (size 256): comm "syz-executor105", pid 3600, jiffies 4294943292 (age 12.990s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: [<ffffffff814cf9f0>] kmalloc_trace+0x20/0x90 mm/slab_common.c:1046 [<ffffffff839c9e07>] kmalloc include/linux/slab.h:576 [inline] [<ffffffff839c9e07>] kmalloc_array include/linux/slab.h:627 [inline] [<ffffffff839c9e07>] kcalloc include/linux/slab.h:659 [inline] [<ffffffff839c9e07>] tcf_exts_init include/net/pkt_cls.h:250 [inline] [<ffffffff839c9e07>] tcindex_set_parms+0xa7/0xbe0 net/sched/cls_tcindex.c:342 [<ffffffff839caa1f>] tcindex_change+0xdf/0x120 net/sched/cls_tcindex.c:553 [<ffffffff8394db62>] tc_new_tfilter+0x4f2/0x1100 net/sched/cls_api.c:2147 [<ffffffff8389e91c>] rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x4dc/0x5d0 net/core/rtnetlink.c:6082 [<ffffffff839eba67>] netlink_rcv_skb+0x87/0x1d0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2540 [<ffffffff839eab87>] netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1319 [inline] [<ffffffff839eab87>] netlink_unicast+0x397/0x4c0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1345 [<ffffffff839eb046>] netlink_sendmsg+0x396/0x710 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1921 [<ffffffff8383e796>] sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:714 [inline] [<ffffffff8383e796>] sock_sendmsg+0x56/0x80 net/socket.c:734 [<ffffffff8383eb08>] ____sys_sendmsg+0x178/0x410 net/socket.c:2482 [<ffffffff83843678>] ___sys_sendmsg+0xa8/0x110 net/socket.c:2536 [<ffffffff838439c5>] __sys_sendmmsg+0x105/0x330 net/socket.c:2622 [<ffffffff83843c14>] __do_sys_sendmmsg net/socket.c:2651 [inline] [<ffffffff83843c14>] __se_sys_sendmmsg net/socket.c:2648 [inline] [<ffffffff83843c14>] __x64_sys_sendmmsg+0x24/0x30 net/socket.c:2648 [<ffffffff84605fd5>] do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] [<ffffffff84605fd5>] do_syscall_64+0x35/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 [<ffffffff84800087>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd
Kernel uses tcindex_change() to change an existing filter properties.
Yet the problem is that, during the process of changing,
if old_r is retrieved from p->perfect, then
kernel uses tcindex_alloc_perfect_hash() to newly
allocate filter results, uses tcindex_filter_result_init()
to clear the old filter result, without destroying
its tcf_exts structure, which triggers the above memory leak.
To be more specific, there are only two source for the old_r,
according to the tcindex_lookup(). old_r is retrieved from
p->perfect, or old_r is retrieved from p->h.
-
If
old_ris retrieved fromp->perfect, kernel uses tcindex_alloc_perfect_hash() to newly allocate the filter results. Thenris assigned withcp->perfect + handle, which is newly allocated. So conditionold_r && old_r != ris true in this situation, and kernel uses tcindex_filter_result_init() to clear the old filter result, without destroying its tcf_exts structure -
If
old_ris retrieved fromp->h, thenp->perfectis NULL according to the tcindex_lookup(). Considering thatcp->his directly copied fromp->handp->perfectis NULL,ris assigned withtcindex_lookup(cp, handle), whose value should be the same asold_r, so conditionold_r && old_r != ris false in this situation, kernel ignores using tcindex_filter_result_init() to clear the old filter result.
So only when old_r is retrieved from p->perfect does kernel use
tcindex_filter_result_init() to clear the old filter result, which
triggers the above memory leak.
Considering that there already exists a tc_filter_wq workqueue to destroy the old tcindex_d ---truncated---
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
No mitigation is specified in collected source.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 3.1 · 5.5CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE-401 · Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime