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CVE Record

CVE-2022-50177: rcutorture: Fix ksoftirqd boosting timing and iteration

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: rcutorture: Fix ksoftirqd boosting timing and iteration The RCU priority boosting can fail in two situations: 1) If (nr_cpus= > maxcpus=), which means if the total number of CPUs is higher than those brought online at boot, then torture_onoff() may later bring up CPUs that weren't online on boot. Now since rcutorture initialization only boosts the ksoftirqds of the CPUs that have been set online on boot, the CPUs later set online by torture_onoff won't benefit from the boost, making RCU priority boosting fail. 2) The ksoftirqd kthreads are boosted after the creation of rcu_torture_boost() kthreads, which opens a window large enough for these rcu_torture_boost() kthreads to wait (despite running at FIFO priority) for ksoftirqds that are still running at SCHED_NORMAL priority. The issues can trigger for example with: ./kvm.sh --configs TREE01 --kconfig "CONFIG_RCU_BOOST=y" [ 34.968561] rcu-torture: !!! [ 34.968627] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 35.014054] WARNING: CPU: 4 PID: 114 at kernel/rcu/rcutorture.c:1979 rcu_torture_stats_print+0x5ad/0x610 [ 35.052043] Modules linked in: [ 35.069138] CPU: 4 PID: 114 Comm: rcu_torture_sta Not tainted 5.18.0-rc1 #1 [ 35.096424] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.14.0-0-g155821a-rebuilt.opensuse.org 04/01/2014 [ 35.154570] RIP: 0010:rcu_torture_stats_print+0x5ad/0x610 [ 35.198527] Code: 63 1b 02 00 74 02 0f 0b 48 83 3d 35 63 1b 02 00 74 02 0f 0b 48 83 3d 21 63 1b 02 00 74 02 0f 0b 48 83 3d 0d 63 1b 02 00 74 02 <0f> 0b 83 eb 01 0f 8e ba fc ff ff 0f 0b e9 b3 fc ff f82 [ 37.251049] RSP: 0000:ffffa92a0050bdf8 EFLAGS: 00010202 [ 37.277320] rcu: De-offloading 8 [ 37.290367] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000000001 RCX: 0000000000000001 [ 37.290387] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 00000000ffffbfff RDI: 00000000ffffffff [ 37.290398] RBP: 000000000000007b R08: 0000000000000000 R09: c0000000ffffbfff [ 37.290407] R10: 000000000000002a R11: ffffa92a0050bc18 R12: ffffa92a0050be20 [ 37.290417] R13: ffffa92a0050be78 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 000000000001bea0 [ 37.290427] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff96045eb00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 37.290448] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 37.290460] CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 000000001dc0c000 CR4: 00000000000006e0 [ 37.290470] Call Trace: [ 37.295049] <TASK> [ 37.295065] ? preempt_count_add+0x63/0x90 [ 37.295095] ? _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x12/0x40 [ 37.295125] ? rcu_torture_stats_print+0x610/0x610 [ 37.295143] rcu_torture_stats+0x29/0x70 [ 37.295160] kthread+0xe3/0x110 [ 37.295176] ? kthread_complete_and_exit+0x20/0x20 [ 37.295193] ret_from_fork+0x22/0x30 [ 37.295218] </TASK> Fix this with boosting the ksoftirqds kthreads from the boosting hotplug callback itself and before the boosting kthreads are created.

UnknownCVSS not scoredNot KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysislow

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2022-50177 is a Linux kernel rcutorture issue where RCU priority boosting can fail during specific torture-test CPU hotplug timing. The public record describes test warnings and scheduling-order problems, not a remote attack path or production data compromise.

Executive priority

Handle through normal kernel maintenance unless your organization runs kernel test infrastructure or custom RCU configurations. There is no sourced evidence of active exploitation or direct business-impacting compromise.

Technical view

The issue is in rcutorture handling of ksoftirqd priority boosting. CPUs brought online after boot, or boost threads created before ksoftirqd boosting, can leave ksoftirqd at normal priority and trigger RCU torture test failures. Kernel stable commits address the ordering by boosting from the hotplug callback before boost threads are created.

Likely exposure

Exposure appears limited to Linux kernels in the listed affected versions where rcutorture and RCU boost testing are used. The source bundle does not show ordinary production workloads, distributions, or default configurations as directly exploitable.

Exploitation context

No cited source reports active exploitation, and the CVE is not marked KEV. The available evidence describes a reproducible rcutorture test failure scenario, not an attacker-driven exploit chain.

Researcher notes

The evidence points to a correctness and timing bug in kernel torture-test infrastructure. The affected-version data in the source bundle is sparse and lacks CVSS, CWE, distro mapping, and operational impact details, so validation should rely on vendor kernel backport status.

Mitigation direction

  • Review vendor kernel advisories for backported fixes covering CVE-2022-50177.
  • Upgrade affected kernels to a fixed vendor-supported release when available.
  • Prioritize systems running kernel validation, rcutorture, or custom RCU boost testing.
  • Avoid assuming broader production impact without vendor confirmation.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory Linux kernel versions against the CVE affected version data.
  • Check whether rcutorture or CONFIG_RCU_BOOST testing is used in your environment.
  • Confirm vendor kernel changelogs include one of the referenced stable fixes.
  • Treat absence of KEV listing as no public active-exploitation evidence, not proof of no risk.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
6

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Unknown
CVSS
Not scored
Known Exploited
No
Published
Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

0CVSS vectors
3Timeline events
0ADP providers
5Source links

Vulnerability timeline

Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.

  1. CVE reservedCVE Program

    The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.

  2. CVE publishedCVE Program

    The CVE record was published.

  3. CVE updatedCVE Program

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Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
LinuxLinuxea6d962e80b61996aeacb443661cc3adcb605315, ea6d962e80b61996aeacb443661cc3adcb605315, ea6d962e80b61996aeacb443661cc3adcb605315, ea6d962e80b61996aeacb443661cc3adcb605315unaffected
LinuxLinux5.14, 0, 5.15.61, 5.18.18, 5.19.2, 6.0affected
Weakness

CWE details

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