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Linux Kernel CVE-2022-50521

MEDIUM
Memory Leak (CWE-401)
2025-10-07 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
5.5
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY
5.5 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
SUSE
MEDIUM
qualitative
Red Hat
5.5 LOW
qualitative

Primary rating from NVD.

CVSS VectorNVD

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

3
Analysis Generated
Mar 17, 2026 - 20:45 vuln.today
Patch released
Mar 17, 2026 - 20:45 nvd
Patch available
CVE Published
Oct 07, 2025 - 16:15 nvd
MEDIUM 5.5

DescriptionCVE.org

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

platform/x86: mxm-wmi: fix memleak in mxm_wmi_call_mx[ds|mx]()

The ACPI buffer memory (out.pointer) returned by wmi_evaluate_method() is not freed after the call, so it leads to memory leak.

The method results in ACPI buffer is not used, so just pass NULL to wmi_evaluate_method() which fixes the memory leak.

AnalysisAI

A memory leak vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel's mxm-wmi (MXM WMI) platform driver where the ACPI buffer returned by wmi_evaluate_method() is not properly freed after invocation, leading to kernel memory exhaustion and potential denial of service. The vulnerability affects all versions of the Linux kernel with the mxm-wmi driver enabled, particularly systems with NVIDIA/AMD discrete GPU switching support. A local attacker with standard user privileges can repeatedly trigger the affected code path to exhaust kernel memory and crash the system, though the extremely low EPSS score (0.01th percentile) suggests exploitation is not actively observed in the wild.

Technical ContextAI

The mxm-wmi driver is a platform/x86 kernel module that interfaces with ACPI WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) methods to manage discrete GPU switching on laptops via NVIDIA MXM (Mobile PCI Express Module) standard. The vulnerability is rooted in CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory After Effective Lifetime), a classic memory leak pattern. When the wmi_evaluate_method() function is called to query GPU status via the mxm_wmi_call_mxds() and mxm_wmi_call_mxmx() functions, it allocates and populates an ACPI buffer (out.pointer) with method results. The original code copied these results but never freed the allocated buffer, causing kernel heap memory to accumulate with unreachable allocations. The fix is trivial: pass NULL as the output buffer parameter to wmi_evaluate_method(), since the method results are unused and only the return status matters.

RemediationAI

Apply the latest stable kernel update for your distribution, which includes the mxm-wmi memory leak fix. The patches are available in kernel.org stable branches at https://git.kernel.org/stable/ (commit references listed above). For immediate remediation on systems that cannot be rebooted immediately, disable the mxm-wmi module if discrete GPU switching is not required by running 'echo 'blacklist mxm_wmi' | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-mxm-wmi.conf' followed by reboot. Long-term, upgrade to a kernel version released after 2022-12 when these patches entered stable trees (e.g., Linux 5.10.163+, 5.15.86+, 6.0.19+, or 6.1.5+, depending on your distribution's support cycle). Verify the fix with 'grep -r "pass NULL" /path/to/kernel/source/drivers/platform/x86/mxm-wmi.c' to confirm the wmi_evaluate_method() buffer parameter is NULL.

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Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Medium
Product Status
Container suse/sle-micro-rancher/5.3:latest Container suse/sle-micro-rancher/5.4:5.4.4.5.89 Image SLES15-SP4-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-Hardened-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-Hardened-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-Hardened-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-Hardened-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-Manager-Server-4-3-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-Manager-Server-4-3-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-Manager-Server-4-3-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-Manager-Server-4-3-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-3-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-3-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-4-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-4-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-SAP Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-SAPCAL Image SLES15-SP4-SAPCAL-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-SAPCAL-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-SAPCAL-GCE Affected
Container suse/sle-micro/base-5.5:2.0.4-5.8.224 Image SLES15-SP5-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP5-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-GCE Image SLES15-SP5-HPC-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-HPC-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-HPC-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP5-Hardened-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-Hardened-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-Hardened-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5 Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5-BYOS Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-SAPCAL-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-SAPCAL-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-SAPCAL-GCE Affected
Container suse/sle-micro/kvm-5.5:2.0.4-3.5.429 Affected
Container suse/sle-micro/rt-5.5:2.0.4-4.5.535 Affected
Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Azure-LI-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Azure-LI-BYOS-Production Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Azure-VLI-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Azure-VLI-BYOS-Production Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Hardened Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Hardened-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Hardened-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Hardened-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Hardened-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Hardened-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Hardened-GCE Affected

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CVE-2022-50521 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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