CVE-2026-98818
Low risk· EPSS 5%Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk5th percentile - higher than 5% of all known CVEs
Summary
A deadlock exists in the Linux kernel in the __kfree_rcu_sheaf() function within the mm/slab subsystem. Since kfree_rcu() can be called under pi_lock (a raw spinlock in the scheduler), attempting to wake up kswapd reacquires pi_lock, leading to a deadlock. The issue was confirmed via lockdep detecting a circular locking dependency.
Risk Assessment
A kernel deadlock can cause a system hang or kernel panic, making services unavailable and requiring a server restart. In production environments this means application downtime and potential data loss.
Recommendation
Update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix for CVE-2026-98818, where __kfree_rcu_sheaf() no longer wakes up kswapd. If updating is not possible, contact your distribution vendor for a patched package.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
See all- CVE-2026-43603Medium
A NULL pointer dereference in the Linux GPU driver could potentially lead to a kernel crash. This may result in a denial of service on the affected system.
- CVE-2026-99270High
A use-after-free (UAF) vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel's reqsk_timer_handler() function. When TCP socket migration fails at inet_ehash_insert(), the code jumps to the no_ownership label and immediately frees the new reqsk via __reqsk_free() without stopping its timer, potentially leading to a UAF.
- CVE-2026-99269High
In the Linux kernel sched_ext scheduler, a task can be found on a non-local DSQ while the CPU that dispatched it is still running ops.dequeue() and hasn't cleared SCX_OPSS_DISPATCHING. The DSQ consume and move paths don't wait for dispatch to finish and can operate on the task concurrently with the dispatcher. The fix adds scx_wait_dispatching() before operating on the task.
- CVE-2026-99268Unknown
In io_uring with IORING_SETUP_DEFER_TASKRUN, completions are queued as local work and only become CQEs when the submitter enters the kernel to wait for events. io_uring_poll() reports EPOLLIN if local work is pending, but only if the work exists at call time; after DEFER_TASKRUN was added, the ->poll_wq wakeup was replaced by directly waking the submitter, so poll() can sleep despite pending work. The fix wakes ->poll_wq when the first entry is put on the work list, using an RCU callback when needed.
- CVE-2026-99267Unknown
In io_uring NAPI with dynamic tracking, a NAPI id not seen for a minute should be dropped from the ring's busy-poll list. However, the timeout is computed incorrectly — SEC_CONVERSION is used instead of the number of jiffies per second, giving about eight years for HZ=1000 and overflowing on 32-bit systems. As a result, entries are never removed and every wait polls all historical ids.
- CVE-2026-99266Unknown
In io_uring zcrx, io_zcrx_queue_cqe() computes the buffer offset in its area from net_iov_idx(), which is an unsigned int, so the shift is done in 32 bits and only the result is widened to the u64 placed in the CQE. An area can be up to 1 TB, so for every niov beyond the first 4 GB the CQE points the application at a buffer 4 GB (or a multiple) below the correct one. The application reads wrong data and returns a buffer it doesn't own via the refill queue while the real one is never given back.
- CVE-2026-99265Unknown
In io_uring/openclose, io_pipe_fixed() installs both ends of the pipe in the fixed file table, drops ->uring_lock, and copies the slot numbers to the application. If that faults, it takes the lock again and removes whatever is in these slots. If the request is run by io-wq, the lock really is dropped and the slots are visible to others; by the time the error path gets to them, they may have been closed and reused (by IORING_OP_CLOSE, direct open/accept, or IORING_REGISTER_FILES_UPDATE), causing removal of a file unrelated to the failed request. The fix performs the copy with the lock held.
- CVE-2026-99264High
A bug was fixed in the Linux kernel's io_uring/net handling of recv retries on uncommitted buffers. When a receive was retried after a partial transfer, the kernel could hand out buffer memory that the retried request was still writing to, causing data overwrites. The request is now completed with the bytes received instead of retried, and MSG_WAITALL is no longer honoured for incremental buffers or multi-buffer bundles.
- CVE-2026-99263Unknown
In io_uring/poll, if a wakeup sets IO_POLL_RETRY_FLAG between the owning task consuming the existing instance of IO_POLL_RETRY_FLAG and the loop check in io_poll_check_events(), request processing stalls until an unrelated wakeup arrives. The fix uses atomic_cmpxchg instead of atomic_sub_return to guarantee both the count v and poll_refs are 0 and no wakeups are missed.
- CVE-2026-99262Unknown
In io_uring/timeout, an IORING_OP_TIMEOUT run by io-wq due to IOSQE_ASYNC has the same problem as poll, futex, and waitid. io_wq_submit_work() checks IO_WQ_WORK_CANCEL only once before issuing the request; a cancel in between flags the work, gets -EALREADY, and searches ->timeout_list in vain while the worker adds the request and starts the timer. Nobody checks the flag again and the timeout runs its course, and at ring exit a task can get stuck for the full duration. The fix checks the flag under ->timeout_lock and fails the request if set.
Original NVD description (English source)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/slab: do not wake up kswapd in __kfree_rcu_sheaf() Since kfree_rcu() can be called under pi_lock (a raw spinlock in the scheduler), kfree_rcu() itself should never allocate memory with __GFP_KSWAPD_RECLAIM as waking up kswapd ends up acquiring pi_lock, which leads to a deadlock. Reproducing the issue even intentionally was not straightforward. The set_cpus_allowed_force() path that is called under pi_lock is exercised very rarely, and competing tasks that allocate memory will most likely wake kswapd up. Therefore the existence of the deadlock was verified with a modified kernel that has a lockdep map for waking up kswapd: ====================================================== WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected 7.2.0-rc1-slab-for-next+ #10 Not tainted ------------------------------------------------------ git/6660 is trying to acquire lock: ffff8e524533c550 (&p->pi_lock){-.-.}-{2:2}, at: _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x12/0x20 but task is already holding lock: ffff8e57bffff1a0 (&pgdat->kswapd_wait){....}-{3:3}, at: _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x12/0x20 which lock already depends on the new lock. the existing dependency chain (in reverse order) is: -> #2 (&pgdat->kswapd_wait){....}-{3:3}: __lock_acquire+0x5a4/0xc50 lock_acquire.part.0+0xb7/0x240 lock_acquire+0x70/0x170 __raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x44/0x80 _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x12/0x20 __wake_up_common_lock+0x31/0xa0 __wake_up+0x20/0x40 kswapd_wakeup_wake+0x7e/0x110 wakeup_kswapd+0x295/0x320 wake_all_kswapds+0xac/0x1a0 __alloc_pages_slowpath.constprop.0+0x282/0xf80 __alloc_frozen_pages_noprof+0x32a/0x360 alloc_slab_page+0x2e/0x160 allocate_slab+0x82/0x420 new_slab+0x52/0xb0 refill_objects+0x13d/0x190 refill_sheaf+0x5d/0xd0 __pcs_replace_empty_main+0x230/0xb10 [...] -> #1 (kswapd_wakeup){-.-.}-{0:0}: __lock_acquire+0x5a4/0xc50 lock_sync.part.0+0x75/0x100 lock_sync+0x36/0x70 might_wakeup_kswapd+0x61/0xa0 __kfree_rcu_sheaf+0x33/0xd90 kvfree_call_rcu+0x1d4/0x3b0 set_cpus_allowed_force+0x163/0x220 cpuset_cpus_allowed_fallback+0x18b/0x240 select_fallback_rq+0x1e6/0x250 [...] -> #0 (&p->pi_lock){-.-.}-{2:2}: check_prev_add+0xe6/0xe00 validate_chain+0x51e/0x6e0 __lock_acquire+0x5a4/0xc50 lock_acquire.part.0+0xb7/0x240 lock_acquire+0x70/0x170 __raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x44/0x80 _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x12/0x20 try_to_wake_up+0x77/0xa90 default_wake_function+0x27/0x60 autoremove_wake_function+0x23/0xb0 __wake_up_common+0xb8/0x170 __wake_up_common_lock+0x51/0xa0 __wake_up+0x20/0x40 kswapd_wakeup_wake+0x7e/0x110 wakeup_kswapd+0x295/0x320 wake_all_kswapds+0xac/0x1a0 __alloc_pages_slowpath.constprop.0+0x282/0xf80 __alloc_frozen_pages_noprof+0x32a/0x360 alloc_slab_page+0x2e/0x160 allocate_slab+0x82/0x420 new_slab+0x52/0xb0 refill_objects+0x13d/0x190 refill_sheaf+0x5d/0xd0 __pcs_replace_empty_main+0x230/0xb10 [...] other info that might help us debug this: Chain exists of: &p->pi_lock --> kswapd_wakeup --> &pgdat->kswapd_wait Possible unsafe locking scenario: CPU0 CPU1 ---- ---- lock(&pgdat->kswapd_wait); lock(kswapd_wakeup); lock(&pgdat->kswapd_wait); lock(&p->pi_lock); *** DEADLOCK *** 3 locks held by git/6660: #0: ffff8e519f0e9e20 (&type->i_mutex_dir_key#6){++++}-{4:4}, at: lookup_slow+0x2d/0x60 #1: ffffffff8a31c460 (kswapd_wakeup){-.-.}- ---truncated---
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS

