Kernel compromise via uninitialized NILFS inode pointer
Published Sep 17, 2025 · Updated Sep 17, 2025
Use-after-free in the Linux kernel allows local users to crash the host through inode allocation on a writable NILFS2 mount. When security_inode_alloc fails, alloc_inode leaves inode->i_private uninitialized, but nilfs_free_inode treats the inode as metadata and passes that pointer to nilfs_mdt_destroy for freeing. Reachability requires low-privileged local write access to a mounted NILFS2 filesystem and allocation failure under memory pressure; triggering the flaw can panic the kernel or compromise kernel memory.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in the Linux kernel allows local users to crash the host through inode allocation on a writable NILFS2 mount. When security_inode_alloc fails, alloc_inode leaves inode->i_private uninitialized, but nilfs_free_inode treats the inode as metadata and passes that pointer to nilfs_mdt_destroy for freeing. Reachability requires low-privileged local write access to a mounted NILFS2 filesystem and allocation failure under memory pressure; triggering the flaw can panic the kernel or compromise kernel memory.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-50367
- Published
- Sep 17, 2025
- Updated
- Sep 17, 2025
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-416, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 17, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 17, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <1e555c3ed1fce4b278aaebe18a64a934cece57d8
- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <2a96b532098284ecf8e4849b8b9e5fc7a28bdee9
- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <2e488f13755ffbb60f307e991b27024716a33b29
- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <64b79e632869ad3ef6c098a4731d559381da1115
- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <70e4f70d54e0225f91814e8610477d65f33cefe4
- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <81de80330fa6907aec32eb54c5619059e6e36452
- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <c0aa76b0f17f59dd9c9d3463550a2986a1d592e4
- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <d1ff475d7c83289d0a7faef346ea3bbf90818bad
- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <ec2aab115eb38ac4992ea2fcc2a02fbe7af5cf48
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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