CVE-2026-43496

Published May 21, 2026

Last updated 10 days ago

Overview

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: sch_red: Replace direct dequeue call with peek and qdisc_dequeue_peeked When red qdisc has children (eg qfq qdisc) whose peek() callback is qdisc_peek_dequeued(), we could get a kernel panic. When the parent of such qdiscs (eg illustrated in patch #3 as tbf) wants to retrieve an skb from its child (red in this case), it will do the following: 1a. do a peek() - and when sensing there's an skb the child can offer, then - the child in this case(red) calls its child's (qfq) peek. qfq does the right thing and will return the gso_skb queue packet. Note: if there wasnt a gso_skb entry then qfq will store it there. 1b. invoke a dequeue() on the child (red). And herein lies the problem. - red will call the child's dequeue() which will essentially just try to grab something of qfq's queue. [ 78.667668][ T363] KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000048-0x000000000000004f] [ 78.667927][ T363] CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 363 Comm: ping Not tainted 7.1.0-rc1-00033-g46f74a3f7d57-dirty #790 PREEMPT(full) [ 78.668263][ T363] Hardware name: Bochs Bochs, BIOS Bochs 01/01/2011 [ 78.668486][ T363] RIP: 0010:qfq_dequeue+0x446/0xc90 [sch_qfq] [ 78.668718][ T363] Code: 54 c0 e8 dd 90 00 f1 48 c7 c7 e0 03 54 c0 48 89 de e8 ce 90 00 f1 48 8d 7b 48 b8 ff ff 37 00 48 89 fa 48 c1 e0 2a 48 c1 ea 03 <80> 3c 02 00 74 05 e8 ef a1 e1 f1 48 8b 7b 48 48 8d 54 24 58 48 8d [ 78.669312][ T363] RSP: 0018:ffff88810de573e0 EFLAGS: 00010216 [ 78.669533][ T363] RAX: dffffc0000000000 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 0000000000000000 [ 78.669790][ T363] RDX: 0000000000000009 RSI: 0000000000000004 RDI: 0000000000000048 [ 78.670044][ T363] RBP: ffff888110dc4000 R08: ffffffffb1b0885a R09: fffffbfff6ba9078 [ 78.670297][ T363] R10: 0000000000000003 R11: ffff888110e31c80 R12: 0000001880000000 [ 78.670560][ T363] R13: ffff888110dc4150 R14: ffff888110dc42b8 R15: 0000000000000200 [ 78.670814][ T363] FS: 00007f66a8f09c40(0000) GS:ffff888163428000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 78.671110][ T363] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 78.671324][ T363] CR2: 000055db4c6a30a8 CR3: 000000010da67000 CR4: 0000000000750ef0 [ 78.671585][ T363] PKRU: 55555554 [ 78.671713][ T363] Call Trace: [ 78.671843][ T363] <TASK> [ 78.671936][ T363] ? __pfx_qfq_dequeue+0x10/0x10 [sch_qfq] [ 78.672148][ T363] ? __pfx__printk+0x10/0x10 [ 78.672322][ T363] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 78.672496][ T363] ? lockdep_hardirqs_on_prepare+0xa8/0x1a0 [ 78.672706][ T363] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 78.672875][ T363] ? trace_hardirqs_on+0x19/0x1a0 [ 78.673047][ T363] red_dequeue+0x65/0x270 [sch_red] [ 78.673217][ T363] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 78.673385][ T363] tbf_dequeue.cold+0xb0/0x70c [sch_tbf] [ 78.673566][ T363] __qdisc_run+0x169/0x1900 The right thing to do in #1b is to grab the skb off gso_skb queue. This patchset fixes that issue by changing #1b to use qdisc_dequeue_peeked() method instead.
Source
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
NVD status
Modified
Products
linux_kernel

Risk scores

CVSS 3.1

Type
Primary
Base score
5.5
Impact score
3.6
Exploitability score
1.8
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Severity
MEDIUM

Weaknesses

nvd@nist.gov
CWE-476

Social media

Hype score
Not currently trending

Configurations

  1. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cgroup: Avoid iteration of dying tasks with zero refcount The commit 260fbcb92bbea ("cgroup: Move dying_tasks cleanup from cgroup_task_release() to cgroup_task_free()") extended the lifetime of tasks on the dying_tasks list. The iterators have provision to go through dying_tasks because of dying threadgroup leaders or explicit CSS_TASK_ITER_WITH_DEAD, however, it was expected that such tasks can obtain a new reference (that is possible before cgroup_task_release()/put_task_struct_rcu_user()). The tasks after cgroup_task_release() and before cgroup_task_free() are subject to race when they may or may not have ->usage count > 0. The race window is between css_task_iter_next() invocations when css_set_lock is released and we may arrive at a new ->task_pos. The iterator should not attempt to resurrect tasks whose ->usage count dropped to zero. (When that happens, __put_task_struct_rcu_cb() is already imminent and the returned task_struct would could be used after free.) As for the fix, we cannot simply check the signal->live count of a task on the dying list because that won't distinguish regular zombies waiting to be reaped from RCU remnant tasks that are going to be free'd. Therefore add an extra check to rule out ->usage==0 tasks from any iteration. The repeat: loop in css_task_iter_advance() doesn't consider ->usage count, so add a new loop to css_task_iter_next() to skip de-used tasks on the dying_list. Rough illustration of the possible race R (reader of cgroup.procs) T (thread) L (group leader) --------------------------------- -------------------------------- -------------------------------- L exits, signal->live > 0 cgroup_task_dead(L) css_set_skip_task_iters() // skips only cset->tasks list_add_tail(&L->cg_list, &cset->dying_tasks) css_task_iter_next() take css_set_lock css_task_iter_advance() leader && signal->live != 0 => it->task_pos = &L->cg_list release css_set_lock T exits --signal->live == 0 cgroup_task_dead(T) // css_set_lock release_task(T) cgroup_task_release(T) release_task(L) // zap_leader cgroup_task_release(L) put_task_struct_rcu_user(L) ...RCU... put_task_struct(L) L->usage = 0 /* L still on dying_tasks */ ...RCU... __put_task_struct(L) css_task_iter_next() // another iteration take css_set_lock it->task_pos = &L->cg_list get_task_struct(L) => addition on 0 drop css_set_lock cgroup_task_free(L) css_set_skip_task_iters() // dying skip comes too late free_task(L) cgroup_procs_show() task_pid_vnr(L)•CVE-2026-98163