CVE-2022-50523

A memory leak flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Rockchip clock driver in the PLL registration error path. A local user on systems with Rockchip hardware can trigger this issue when PLL clock registration fails, causing the driver to return without freeing memory previously allocated by kmemdup for the rate table. This results in a permanent memory leak that accumulates across registration failure cycles, leading to resource exhaustion and denial of service.

The rockchip_clk_register_pll function allocates memory for the PLL rate table using kmemdup early in the registration process. If the subsequent clk_register call fails, the function returns immediately without freeing the allocated rate table memory. Since clock registration failures are terminal errors that are not retried automatically, each failure permanently leaks memory. While clock registration typically occurs during boot and rarely fails, certain hardware configurations or deliberate manipulation of clock settings could trigger repeated failures. The issue requires Rockchip SoC hardware and conditions that cause clock registration to fail.

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.