Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2022-50166

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-06-18
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.18.18 / 5.19.2 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Bluetooth: When HCI work queue is drained, only queue chained work The HCI command, event, and data packet processing workqueue is drained to avoid deadlock in commit 76727c02c1e1 ("Bluetooth: Call drain_workqueue() before resetting state"). There is another delayed work, which will queue command to this drained workqueue. Which results in the following error report: Bluetooth: hci2: command 0x040f tx timeout WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 18374 at kernel/workqueue.c:1438 __queue_work+0xdad/0x1140 Workqueue: events hci_cmd_timeout RIP: 0010:__queue_work+0xdad/0x1140 RSP: 0000:ffffc90002cffc60 EFLAGS: 00010093 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff8880b9d3ec00 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: ffff888024ba0000 RSI: ffffffff814e048d RDI: ffff8880b9d3ec08 RBP: 0000000000000008 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 00000000b9d39700 R10: ffffffff814f73c6 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff88807cce4c60 R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffff8880796d8800 R15: ffff8880796d8800 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8880b9d00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 000000c0174b4000 CR3: 000000007cae9000 CR4: 00000000003506e0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: <TASK> ? queue_work_on+0xcb/0x110 ? lockdep_hardirqs_off+0x90/0xd0 queue_work_on+0xee/0x110 process_one_work+0x996/0x1610 ? pwq_dec_nr_in_flight+0x2a0/0x2a0 ? rwlock_bug.part.0+0x90/0x90 ? _raw_spin_lock_irq+0x41/0x50 worker_thread+0x665/0x1080 ? process_one_work+0x1610/0x1610 kthread+0x2e9/0x3a0 ? kthread_complete_and_exit+0x40/0x40 ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30 </TASK> To fix this, we can add a new HCI_DRAIN_WQ flag, and don't queue the timeout workqueue while command workqueue is draining.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-667

Shared resources are accessed without correct locking, so concurrent operations interleave into inconsistent — and sometimes exploitable — states, or deadlock the service outright. These bugs are subtle and timing-dependent. The fix is correct, consistent locking or atomic operations around every shared resource.

General guidance for the improper locking class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
Affected:>= 3.19, < 5.18.18>= 5.19, < 5.19.2

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.18.18 / 5.19.2 or later
Fixed in 5.18.185.19.2
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

kernel >= 5.18.18 or >= 5.19.2 (depending on branch)

  1. Upgrade Linux kernel to version 5.18.18 or later if currently on 5.18.x branch
  2. If running 5.19.x, upgrade to version 5.19.2 or later
  3. If running a version between 3.19 and 5.18.x (exclusive), upgrade to 5.18.18 or later
  4. Reboot the system after kernel upgrade to apply the fixed kernel

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,600. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-50166 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-50166 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data