What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2022-50077: apparmor: fix reference count leak in aa_pivotroot()

• Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2025-06-18 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: apparmor: fix reference count leak in aa_pivotroot() The aa_pivotroot() function has a reference counting bug in a specific path. When aa_replace_current_label() returns on success, the function forgets to decrement the reference count of “target”, which is increased earlier by build_pivotroot(), causing a reference leak. Fix it by decreasing the refcount of “target” in that path.

Affected products

• Linux kernel: from 4.14.1 before 4.14.291; from 4.15 before 4.19.256; from 4.20 before 5.4.211; from 5.5 before 5.10.138; from 5.11 before 5.15.63; from 5.16 before 5.19.4 — fixed in 4.14.291, 4.19.256, 5.10.138, 5.15.63, 5.19.4, 5.4.211

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 4.14.291, 4.19.256, 5.10.138, 5.15.63. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/11c3627ec6b56c1525013f336f41b79a983b4d46
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2ceeb3296e9dde1d5772348046affcefdea605e2
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3ca40ad7afae144169a43988ef1a3f16182faf0a
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/64103ea357734b82384c925cba4758fdb909be0c
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d53194707d2a1851be027cd74266b96ceff799d3
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ef6fb6f0d0d8440595b45a7e53c6162c737177f4
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f4d5c7796571624e3f380b447ada52834270a287

Get alerted when CVE-2022-50077 or the next vulnerability affects your stack