In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

vhost-vdpa: fix an iotlb memory leak

Before commit 3d5698793897 ("vhost-vdpa: introduce asid based IOTLB")
we called vhost_vdpa_iotlb_unmap(v, iotlb, 0ULL, 0ULL - 1) during
release to free all the resources allocated when processing user IOTLB
messages through vhost_vdpa_process_iotlb_update().
That commit changed the handling of IOTLB a bit, and we accidentally
removed some code called during the release.

We partially fixed this with commit 037d4305569a ("vhost-vdpa: call
vhost_vdpa_cleanup during the release") but a potential memory leak is
still there as showed by kmemleak if the application does not send
VHOST_IOTLB_INVALIDATE or crashes:

unreferenced object 0xffff888007fbaa30 (size 16):
comm "blkio-bench", pid 914, jiffies 4294993521 (age 885.500s)
hex dump (first 16 bytes):
40 73 41 07 80 88 ff ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 @sA.............
backtrace:
[<0000000087736d2a>] kmem_cache_alloc_trace+0x142/0x1c0
[<0000000060740f50>] vhost_vdpa_process_iotlb_msg+0x68c/0x901 [vhost_vdpa]
[<0000000083e8e205>] vhost_chr_write_iter+0xc0/0x4a0 [vhost]
[<000000008f2f414a>] vhost_vdpa_chr_write_iter+0x18/0x20 [vhost_vdpa]
[<00000000de1cd4a0>] vfs_write+0x216/0x4b0
[<00000000a2850200>] ksys_write+0x71/0xf0
[<00000000de8e720b>] __x64_sys_write+0x19/0x20
[<0000000018b12cbb>] do_syscall_64+0x3f/0x90
[<00000000986ec465>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

Let's fix this calling vhost_vdpa_iotlb_unmap() on the whole range in
vhost_vdpa_remove_as(). We move that call before vhost_dev_cleanup()
since we need a valid v->vdev.mm in vhost_vdpa_pa_unmap().
vhost_iotlb_reset() call can be removed, since vhost_vdpa_iotlb_unmap()
on the whole range removes all the entries.

The kmemleak log reported was observed with a vDPA device that has `use_va`
set to true (e.g. VDUSE). This patch has been tested with both types of
devices.

Metrics

No CVSS v4.0

Attack Vector Local

Attack Complexity Low

Privileges Required Low

Scope Unchanged

Confidentiality Impact None

Integrity Impact None

Availability Impact High

User Interaction None

No CVSS v3.0

No CVSS v2

This CVE is not in the KEV list.

No EPSS score available.

Key SSVC decision points have not yet been added.

Affected Vendors & Products

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Advisories

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Fixes

Solution

No solution given by the vendor.

Workaround

No workaround given by the vendor.

References
Link Providers
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4e92cb33bfb51eee5f28bb10846c46f266a4bb67 cve-icon cve-icon
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a2907867e2c86067accd2f011d6f23ee5533aa6c cve-icon cve-icon
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c070c1912a83432530cbb4271d5b9b11fa36b67a cve-icon cve-icon
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025122447-CVE-2022-50738-d561@gregkh/T cve-icon
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-50738 cve-icon
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-50738 cve-icon
History

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 12:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

 cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

threat_severity

Low

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 13:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vhost-vdpa: fix an iotlb memory leak Before commit 3d5698793897 ("vhost-vdpa: introduce asid based IOTLB") we called vhost_vdpa_iotlb_unmap(v, iotlb, 0ULL, 0ULL - 1) during release to free all the resources allocated when processing user IOTLB messages through vhost_vdpa_process_iotlb_update(). That commit changed the handling of IOTLB a bit, and we accidentally removed some code called during the release. We partially fixed this with commit 037d4305569a ("vhost-vdpa: call vhost_vdpa_cleanup during the release") but a potential memory leak is still there as showed by kmemleak if the application does not send VHOST_IOTLB_INVALIDATE or crashes: unreferenced object 0xffff888007fbaa30 (size 16): comm "blkio-bench", pid 914, jiffies 4294993521 (age 885.500s) hex dump (first 16 bytes): 40 73 41 07 80 88 ff ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 @sA............. backtrace: [<0000000087736d2a>] kmem_cache_alloc_trace+0x142/0x1c0 [<0000000060740f50>] vhost_vdpa_process_iotlb_msg+0x68c/0x901 [vhost_vdpa] [<0000000083e8e205>] vhost_chr_write_iter+0xc0/0x4a0 [vhost] [<000000008f2f414a>] vhost_vdpa_chr_write_iter+0x18/0x20 [vhost_vdpa] [<00000000de1cd4a0>] vfs_write+0x216/0x4b0 [<00000000a2850200>] ksys_write+0x71/0xf0 [<00000000de8e720b>] __x64_sys_write+0x19/0x20 [<0000000018b12cbb>] do_syscall_64+0x3f/0x90 [<00000000986ec465>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd Let's fix this calling vhost_vdpa_iotlb_unmap() on the whole range in vhost_vdpa_remove_as(). We move that call before vhost_dev_cleanup() since we need a valid v->vdev.mm in vhost_vdpa_pa_unmap(). vhost_iotlb_reset() call can be removed, since vhost_vdpa_iotlb_unmap() on the whole range removes all the entries. The kmemleak log reported was observed with a vDPA device that has `use_va` set to true (e.g. VDUSE). This patch has been tested with both types of devices.
Title vhost-vdpa: fix an iotlb memory leak
First Time appeared Linux
Linux linux Kernel
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Linux
Linux linux Kernel
References

Projects

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Linux

Published:

Updated: 2025-12-24T13:05:36.801Z

Reserved: 2025-12-24T13:02:21.542Z

Link: CVE-2022-50738

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2025-12-24T13:16:00.503

Modified: 2025-12-24T13:16:00.503

Link: CVE-2022-50738

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Low

Publid Date: 2025-12-24T00:00:00Z

Links: CVE-2022-50738 - Bugzilla

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.

Weaknesses

No weakness.