CVE-2022-50765

CVE-2022-50765 is a security vulnerability that is still awaiting full analysis and scoring. It is not currently listed as actively exploited by CISA, and its EPSS exploit-prediction score is low.

Key facts

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: RISC-V: kexec: Fix memory leak of elf header buffer This is reported by kmemleak detector: unreferenced object 0xff2000000403d000 (size 4096): comm "kexec", pid 146, jiffies 4294900633 (age 64.792s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .ELF............ 04 00 f3 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: [<00000000566ca97c>] kmemleak_vmalloc+0x3c/0xbe [<00000000979283d8>] __vmalloc_node_range+0x3ac/0x560 [<00000000b4b3712a>] __vmalloc_node+0x56/0x62 [<00000000854f75e2>] vzalloc+0x2c/0x34 [<00000000e9a00db9>] crash_prepare_elf64_headers+0x80/0x30c [<0000000067e8bf48>] elf_kexec_load+0x3e8/0x4ec [<0000000036548e09>] kexec_image_load_default+0x40/0x4c [<0000000079fbe1b4>] sys_kexec_file_load+0x1c4/0x322 [<0000000040c62c03>] ret_from_syscall+0x0/0x2 In elf_kexec_load(), a buffer is allocated via vzalloc() to store elf headers. While it's not freed back to system when kdump kernel is reloaded or unloaded, or when image->elf_header is successfully set and then fails to load kdump kernel for some reason. Fix it by freeing the buffer in arch_kimage_file_post_load_cleanup().

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2022-50765?
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: RISC-V: kexec: Fix memory leak of elf header buffer This is reported by kmemleak detector: unreferenced object 0xff2000000403d000 (size 4096): comm "kexec", pid 146, jiffies 4294900633 (age 64.792s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .ELF............ 04 00 f3 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: [<00000000566ca97c>] kmemleak_vmalloc+0x3c/0xbe [<00000000979283d8>] __vmalloc_node_range+0x3ac/0x560 [<00000000b4b3712a>] __vmalloc_node+0x56/0x62 [<00000000854f75e2>] vzalloc+0x2c/0x34 [<00000000e9a00db9>] crash_prepare_elf64_headers+0x80/0x30c [<0000000067e8bf48>] elf_kexec_load+0x3e8/0x4ec [<0000000036548e09>] kexec_image_load_default+0x40/0x4c [<0000000079fbe1b4>] sys_kexec_file_load+0x1c4/0x322 [<0000000040c62c03>] ret_from_syscall+0x0/0x2 In elf_kexec_load(), a buffer is allocated via vzalloc() to store elf headers. While it's not freed back to system when kdump kernel is reloaded or unloaded, or when image->elf_header is successfully set and then fails to load kdump kernel for some reason. Fix it by freeing the buffer in arch_kimage_file_post_load_cleanup().
Is CVE-2022-50765 being actively exploited?
It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 0% (10th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How do I fix CVE-2022-50765?
Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround.
Does CVE-2022-50765 have an EU (EUVD) identifier?
Yes. CVE-2022-50765 is tracked in the ENISA EU Vulnerability Database (EUVD) as EUVD-2022-55796.
When was CVE-2022-50765 published?
CVE-2022-50765 was published on 2025-12-24 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References