CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-98542

Low risk· EPSS 9%
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.20%

9th percentile - higher than 9% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel, remote_partition_enable() had its cpumask_intersects() conflict check replaced by WARN_ON_ONCE(). As a result, a remote cpuset partition can be enabled on CPUs already owned by an ancestor local partition, emitting a kernel warning and leaving two partitions claiming exclusive use of the same CPU.

Risk Assessment

Misconfigured cgroup/cpuset partitions can overlap in exclusive CPU assignments, breaking CPU isolation and potentially causing unpredictable behavior or performance issues for workloads. Exploitation requires local privileges to create cgroups, so the risk to a typical organization is moderate.

Recommendation

Update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix that restores returning PERR_NOCPUS on subpartitions_cpus conflict in remote_partition_enable(). Until patched, avoid creating remote cpuset partitions beneath existing local partitions via intermediate PRS_MEMBER cgroups.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

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Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cgroup/cpuset: Return PERR_NOCPUS in remote_partition_enable() on subpartitions_cpus conflict When a remote partition is created underneath an existing local partition via a non-partition (PRS_MEMBER) intermediate cgroup, update_prstate() sees parent->partition_root_state == PRS_MEMBER and calls remote_partition_enable(). Commit 86888c7bd117 ("cgroup/cpuset: Add warnings to catch inconsistency in exclusive CPUs") replaced the cpumask_intersects(tmp->new_cpus, subpartitions_cpus) error check in remote_partition_enable() with WARN_ON_ONCE(). As a result, remote_partition_enable() emits a warning and proceeds to enable the remote partition on CPUs that are already owned by the ancestor local partition in subpartitions_cpus. This can be reproduced on Linux 7.3.0-rc3 with: mkdir -p /tmp/cg1 mount -t cgroup2 none /tmp/cg1 echo "+cpuset" > /tmp/cg1/cgroup.subtree_control mkdir /tmp/cg1/A echo 1 > /tmp/cg1/A/cpuset.cpus echo 1 > /tmp/cg1/A/cpuset.cpus.exclusive echo root > /tmp/cg1/A/cpuset.cpus.partition echo "+cpuset" > /tmp/cg1/A/cgroup.subtree_control mkdir /tmp/cg1/A/B echo 1 > /tmp/cg1/A/B/cpuset.cpus echo 1 > /tmp/cg1/A/B/cpuset.cpus.exclusive echo "+cpuset" > /tmp/cg1/A/B/cgroup.subtree_control mkdir /tmp/cg1/A/B/D echo 1 > /tmp/cg1/A/B/D/cpuset.cpus echo 1 > /tmp/cg1/A/B/D/cpuset.cpus.exclusive echo root > /tmp/cg1/A/B/D/cpuset.cpus.partition which triggers: WARNING: kernel/cgroup/cpuset.c:1594 at remote_partition_enable+0x1c1/0x300 and leaves both /tmp/cg1/A and /tmp/cg1/A/B/D as active root partitions claiming exclusive CPU 1. Fix this by returning PERR_NOCPUS when tmp->new_cpus intersects subpartitions_cpus in remote_partition_enable(), matching the error code used by remote_cpus_update() for the same subpartitions_cpus conflict, and add a regression test case to tools/testing/selftests/cgroup/test_cpuset_prs.sh. Tested in QEMU on Linux 7.3.0-rc3 using the reproducer above and tools/testing/selftests/cgroup/test_cpuset_prs.sh.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS