Kernel crash via unterminated mount peer traversal
Published Sep 15, 2025 · Updated Sep 15, 2025
NULL pointer dereference in Linux kernel mount propagation allows local users to crash the kernel through an unprivileged user namespace. The propagate_mnt() traversal fails to stop at peers of the source mount while locating source copies that become masters above destination-tree slaves, eventually following a NULL mount pointer. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access with unprivileged user namespaces enabled and causes a system-wide kernel crash rather than data disclosure or modification.
Summary
What happened
NULL pointer dereference in Linux kernel mount propagation allows local users to crash the kernel through an unprivileged user namespace. The propagate_mnt() traversal fails to stop at peers of the source mount while locating source copies that become masters above destination-tree slaves, eventually following a NULL mount pointer. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access with unprivileged user namespaces enabled and causes a system-wide kernel crash rather than data disclosure or modification.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-50280
- Published
- Sep 15, 2025
- Updated
- Sep 15, 2025
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-476, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 15, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 15, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=3.15
- Affected versionversion=f2ebb3a921c1ca1e2ddd9242e95a1989a50c4c68 <11933cf1d91d57da9e5c53822a540bbdc2656c16
- Affected versionversion=f2ebb3a921c1ca1e2ddd9242e95a1989a50c4c68 <2dae4211b579ce98985876a73a78466e285238ff
- Affected versionversion=f2ebb3a921c1ca1e2ddd9242e95a1989a50c4c68 <784a4f995ee24460aa72e00b085612fad57ebce5
- Affected versionversion=f2ebb3a921c1ca1e2ddd9242e95a1989a50c4c68 <7f57df69de7f05302fad584eb8e3f34de39e0311
- Affected versionversion=f2ebb3a921c1ca1e2ddd9242e95a1989a50c4c68 <b591b2919d018ef91b4a9571edca94105bcad3df
- Affected versionversion=f2ebb3a921c1ca1e2ddd9242e95a1989a50c4c68 <c24cc476acd8bccb5af54849aac5e779d8223bf5
- Affected versionversion=f2ebb3a921c1ca1e2ddd9242e95a1989a50c4c68 <cad0d17fb2b0540180ab59e2cd48ad348cc1ee4c
- Affected versionversion=f2ebb3a921c1ca1e2ddd9242e95a1989a50c4c68 <cc997490be65da0af8c75a6244fc80bb66c53ce0
- Affected versionversion=f2ebb3a921c1ca1e2ddd9242e95a1989a50c4c68 <e7c9f10c44a8919cd8bbd51b228c84d0caf7d518
- Affected versionversion=fc7b1646bf29f722277bdd19551e01420ce9da8f
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Mount-propagation kernel-crash reproducerfunctional · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
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