CVE-2022-50838net: stream: purge sk_error_queue in sk_stream_kill_queues()

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: stream: purge sk_error_queue in sk_stream_kill_queues() Changheon Lee reported TCP socket leaks, with a nice repro. It seems we leak TCP sockets with the following sequence: 1) SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_ACK is enabled on the socket. Each ACK will cook an skb put in error queue, from __skb_tstamp_tx(). __skb_tstamp_tx() is using skb_clone(), unless SOF_TIMESTAMPING_OPT_TSONLY was also requested. 2) If the application is also using MSG_ZEROCOPY, then we put in the error queue cloned skbs that had a struct ubuf_info attached to them. Whenever an struct ubuf_info is allocated, sock_zerocopy_alloc() does a sock_hold(). As long as the cloned skbs are still in sk_error_queue, socket refcount is kept elevated. 3) Application closes the socket, while error queue is not empty. Since tcp_close() no longer purges the socket error queue, we might end up with a TCP socket with at least one skb in error queue keeping the socket alive forever. This bug can be (ab)used to consume all kernel memory and freeze the host. We need to purge the error queue, with proper synchronization against concurrent writers.

Timeline

Scores

No CVSS score yet: neither the CNA, CISA nor NVD has scored this CVE. NVD status: Deferred.

EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)

0.28% · top 79% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)

The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Not scored.

Affected products

• Linux · Linux

  • affected 7737b104c211fa843de268b897d601e070292a72 – < c8c1eec578a9ae2dc8f14a1846942a0b7bf29d1d
  • affected 89be5c357de34718eaaaefed80737f432c5ab86f – < bab542cf56fc174c8447c00b73be99ffd66d2d39
  • affected 8b8b3d738e450d2c2ccdc75f0ab5a951746c2a96 – < 6f00bd0402a1e3d2d556afba57c045bd7931e4d3
  • affected b631c603b5fb98d2bd709c35d384901965a3dd51 – < 4f1d37ff4226eb99d6b69e9f4518e279e1a851bf
  • affected daf15fa1fd997749e881aedd9f03f73a11240e82 – < 9062493811676ee0efe6c74d98f00ca38c4e17d4
  • affected 3988164fe9ddf98ebf5b5cdede91ac38c5f08a7e – < 9da204cd67c4fe97e8aa465d10d5c2e7076f7f42
  • affected 24bcbe1cc69fa52dc4f7b5b2456678ed464724d8 – < 8c330c36b3970d0917f48827fa6c7a9c75aa4602
  • affected 24bcbe1cc69fa52dc4f7b5b2456678ed464724d8 – < b458d349f8753f666233828ebd30df6f100cf7d5
  • affected 24bcbe1cc69fa52dc4f7b5b2456678ed464724d8 – < e0c8bccd40fc1c19e1d246c39bcf79e357e1ada3
  • affected 6ba975e14f5ebb87143d737c493adf4031409a68
  • affected 4437f3ead9e85c35fe0e3adfb98c0b97eaa267eb
  • affected 4.9.291 – < 4.9.337
  • affected 4.14.256 – < 4.14.303
  • affected 4.19.218 – < 4.19.270
  • affected 5.4.160 – < 5.4.229
  • affected 5.10.80 – < 5.10.163
  • affected 5.15.3 – < 5.15.86
  • affected 4.4.293 – < 4.5
  • affected 5.14.19 – < 5.15

• Linux · Linux

  • affected 5.16
  • unaffected < 5.16
  • unaffected 4.9.337 – ≤ 4.9.*
  • unaffected 4.14.303 – ≤ 4.14.*
  • unaffected 4.19.270 – ≤ 4.19.*
  • unaffected 5.4.229 – ≤ 5.4.*
  • unaffected 5.10.163 – ≤ 5.10.*
  • unaffected 5.15.86 – ≤ 5.15.*
  • unaffected 6.0.16 – ≤ 6.0.*
  • unaffected 6.1.2 – ≤ 6.1.*
  • unaffected 6.2 – ≤ *

Sources

The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.

• CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
• CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
• NVD (opens in a new tab)
• FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
• EUVD EUVD-2022-55860 (opens in a new tab)
• OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
• GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
• CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)

Badge for a README or a ticket

[![CVE-2022-50838](https://cveledger.app/badge/CVE-2022-50838.svg)](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2022-50838)

Record last updated 23 May 2026, 15:25 UTC.