CVE-2022-50469: staging: rtl8723bs: fix potential memory leak in rtw_init_drv_sw()

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: 2025-10-01 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-401

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: staging: rtl8723bs: fix potential memory leak in rtw_init_drv_sw() In rtw_init_drv_sw(), there are various init functions are called to populate the padapter structure and some checks for their return value. However, except for the first one error path, the other five error paths do not properly release the previous allocated resources, which leads to various memory leaks. This patch fixes them and keeps the success and error separate. Note that these changes keep the form of `rtw_init_drv_sw()` in "drivers/staging/r8188eu/os_dep/os_intfs.c". As there is no proper device to test with, no runtime testing was performed.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 4.12 before 5.15.75; from 5.16 before 5.19.17; from 6.0 before 6.0.3 — fixed in 5.15.75, 5.19.17, 6.0.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.15.75, 5.19.17, 6.0.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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