Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2022-50293

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-09-15
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.15.86 / 6.0.16 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: btrfs: do not BUG_ON() on ENOMEM when dropping extent items for a range If we get -ENOMEM while dropping file extent items in a given range, at btrfs_drop_extents(), due to failure to allocate memory when attempting to increment the reference count for an extent or drop the reference count, we handle it with a BUG_ON(). This is excessive, instead we can simply abort the transaction and return the error to the caller. In fact most callers of btrfs_drop_extents(), directly or indirectly, already abort the transaction if btrfs_drop_extents() returns any error. Also, we already have error paths at btrfs_drop_extents() that may return -ENOMEM and in those cases we abort the transaction, like for example anything that changes the b+tree may return -ENOMEM due to a failure to allocate a new extent buffer when COWing an existing extent buffer, such as a call to btrfs_duplicate_item() for example. So replace the BUG_ON() calls with proper logic to abort the transaction and return the error.

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-617

Attacker-controllable input can reach an assertion that aborts the process when it fails, so a check meant for debugging becomes a denial-of-service in production. A single crafted request takes the service down. The fix is to handle unexpected input gracefully on reachable paths rather than asserting on it.

General guidance for the reachable assertion 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:< 5.15.86>= 5.16, < 6.0.16>= 6.1, < 6.1.2

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 5.15.86 / 6.0.16 / 6.1.2 or later
Fixed in 5.15.866.0.166.1.2
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

5.15.86+ / 6.0.16+ / 6.1.2+ (depending on your branch)

  1. Identify the current Linux kernel version using 'uname -r'
  2. Determine which kernel branch you are running (5.15.y, 5.16-6.0.x, or 6.1.x)
  3. For 5.15.y branch: Upgrade to kernel version 5.15.86 or later
  4. For 5.16-6.0.x branch: Upgrade to kernel version 6.0.16 or later
  5. For 6.1.x branch: Upgrade to kernel version 6.1.2 or later
  6. Alternatively, apply the upstream commit 162d053e15fe985f754ef495a96eb3db970c43ed as a patch if upgrading the entire kernel is not feasible
  7. Reboot the system into the updated kernel
Caveat Kernel upgrades may introduce regressions; test in staging environment first; some older kernel modules may need recompilation

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-2022-50293 — 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-2022-50293 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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
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