Vulnerability · Published Oct 1, 2025 · Assigned by Linux
CVE-2022-50446ARC: mm: fix leakage of memory allocated for PTE
Medium 5.5
In plain English
A medium-severity security flaw in Linux from Linux. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 5% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ARC: mm: fix leakage of memory allocated for PTE Since commit d9820ff ("ARC: mm: switch pgtable_t back to struct page *") a memory leakage problem occurs. Memory allocated for page table entries not released during process termination. This issue can be reproduced by a small program that allocates a large amount of memory. After several runs, you'll see that the amount of free memory has reduced and will continue to reduce after each run. All ARC CPUs are effected by this issue. The issue was introduced since the kernel stable release v5.15-rc1. As described in commit d9820ff after switch pgtable_t back to struct page *, a pointer to "struct page" and appropriate functions are used to allocate and free a memory page for PTEs, but the pmd_pgtable macro hasn't changed and returns the direct virtual address from the PMD (PGD) entry. Than this address used as a parameter in the __pte_free() and as a result this function couldn't release memory page allocated for PTEs. Fix this issue by changing the pmd_pgtable macro and returning pointer to struct page.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | linux | 6.0.7-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Debian:13 | linux | 6.0.7-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Debian:14 | linux | 6.0.7-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux | 5.15.0-60.66 | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-allwinner-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-aws | 5.15.0-1030.34 | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-aws-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-aws-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-aws-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure | 5.15.0-1033.40 | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-azure-6.11 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-fde | 5.15.0-1033.40.1 | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-fde-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-fde-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-gcp | 5.15.0-1029.36 | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-gcp-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-gcp-6.11 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-gcp-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-gcp-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-gke | 5.15.0-1027.32 | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-gkeop | 5.15.0-1015.19 | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-hwe-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-hwe-6.11 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-hwe-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-hwe-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-ibm | 5.15.0-1025.28 | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-intel | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-intel-iot-realtime | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-intel-iotg | 5.15.0-1025.30 | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-kvm | 5.15.0-1028.33 | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-lowlatency | 5.15.0-60.66 | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-nvidia | 5.15.0-1017.17 | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-nvidia-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-nvidia-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oem-5.17 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oem-6.0 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oem-6.1 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-oem-6.11 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oem-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-oem-6.8 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oracle | 5.15.0-1029.35 | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oracle-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-raspi | 5.15.0-1024.26 | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-raspi-realtime | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-realtime | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-realtime | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-riscv | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-riscv | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-riscv-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-riscv-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-starfive-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-starfive-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-starfive-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50446 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | d9820ff76f95fa26d33e412254a89cd65b23142d – before 14009ada5712649589ab4ad0441b811780ea8773d9820ff76f95fa26d33e412254a89cd65b23142d – before d83a69966e8b6ae9dd447f3ac704c0223bceb7f7d9820ff76f95fa26d33e412254a89cd65b23142d – before 4fd9df10cb7a9289fbd22d669f9f98164d95a1ce |
| Linux | Linux | 5.15 |