CVE-2022-50660

Vulnerability

A memory leak vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel's Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 (ipw2200) Wi-Fi driver. In the function ipw_wdev_init(), when an error occurs, the allocated memory is not freed before returning an exception value. Furthermore, the calling function ipw_pci_probe() also does not release this memory, leading to a cumulative memory leak over time [1][2][3].

Exploitation

The vulnerability is triggered during device initialization when an error path is taken in ipw_wdev_init(). No special privileges or user interaction are required; an attacker would need to be able to trigger the error condition, which could occur naturally during normal operation or potentially via crafted inputs that cause initialization failures.

Impact

A local attacker could exploit this memory leak to exhaust system memory resources, leading to a denial-of-service (DoS) condition. Over repeated reloads of the driver or on systems with limited memory, this could cause instability or crash the system.

Mitigation

The issue is fixed by adding proper memory cleanup in the error paths of ipw_wdev_init(). Patches have been committed to the Linux kernel stable tree [1][2][3]. Users should update to a kernel version containing these fixes or apply the relevant backport.