CVE-2022-50486
- Published: 2025-10-04T16:15:45.463
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net: ethernet: ti: Fix return type of netcp_ndo_start_xmit()
With clang’s kernel control flow integrity (kCFI, CONFIG_CFI_CLANG),
indirect call targets are validated against the expected function
pointer prototype to make sure the call target is valid to help mitigate
ROP attacks. If they are not identical, there is a failure at run time,
which manifests as either a kernel panic or thread getting killed. A
proposed warning in clang aims to catch these at compile time, which
reveals:
drivers/net/ethernet/ti/netcp_core.c:1944:21: error: incompatible function pointer types initializing ‘netdev_tx_t (*)(struct sk_buff *, struct net_device *)’ (aka ‘enum netdev_tx (*)(struct sk_buff *, struct net_device *)’) with an expression of type ‘int (struct sk_buff *, struct net_device *)’ [-Werror,-Wincompatible-function-pointer-types-strict]
.ndo_start_xmit = netcp_ndo_start_xmit,
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1 error generated.
->ndo_start_xmit() in ‘struct net_device_ops’ expects a return type of
‘netdev_tx_t’, not ‘int’. Adjust the return type of
netcp_ndo_start_xmit() to match the prototype’s to resolve the warning
and CFI failure.
Related CVE by CWE
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How to fix CVE-2022-50486
Description: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: ethernet: ti: Fix return type of netcp_ndo_start_xmit() With clang’s kernel control flow integrity (kCFI, CONFIG_CFI_CLANG), indirect call targets are validated against the expected function pointer prototype to make sure the call target is valid to help mitigate ROP attacks. If they are not identical, […]
Exploit Difficulty: HARD
⏱️ Time to exploit: > 4 hours
🛠️ Required skills: Advanced security expertise
💰 Public exploits: Rare or not public
How to Fix:
- Check if you're running the affected product
- Update to the latest patched version
- If patching is not immediately possible: restrict network exposure, apply least-privilege access
- Test the fix in a staging environment first
- Review logs for signs of exploitation
- Monitor for IOCs (Indicators of Compromise)
- Enable automatic security updates
- Set up vulnerability monitoring
- Review and harden security configurations
Exploit Difficulty Assessment
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