mm/kmemleak: avoid soft lockup when scanning task stacks
Key facts
- Attack vector
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- Privileges required
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- User interaction
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- Attack complexity
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- Impact type
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- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 6 without a fix
No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/kmemleak: avoid soft lockup when scanning task stacks Patch series "mm/kmemleak: avoid soft lockup when scanning task", v3. kmemleak_scan() scans every task stack under one rcu_read_lock() with no reschedule point, which can trip the soft lockup watchdog on hosts with very many threads. That prints the following message, depending on the workload+host configuration: watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#35 stuck for 22s! [kmemleak:537] scan_block kmemleak_scan kmemleak_scan_thread kthread Patch 1 walks the tasks with find_ge_pid() so the scan reschedules between tasks Patches 2-3 let the scan loops stop early once a scan is interrupted. This patch (of 3): kmemleak_scan() walks every thread and scans its kernel stack under a single rcu_read_lock() with no reschedule point. On a host with very many threads -- amplified by KASAN/lockdep in debug builds -- this loop can hog a CPU long enough to trip the soft lockup watchdog: watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#35 stuck for 22s! [kmemleak:537] scan_block kmemleak_scan kmemleak_scan_thread kthread A cond_resched() cannot be added directly: the loop runs inside an RCU read-side critical section. Walk the tasks one PID at a time with find_ge_pid(), taking the RCU read lock only to look up and pin each task. The stack is then scanned with no lock held, so cond_resched() runs between tasks and the scan stops early on scan_should_stop(). This follows the next_tgid()/task_seq_get_next() iteration pattern and keeps each RCU critical section short.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.1.191, 6.6.160, 6.12.109, 6.18.50, 7.2.4, 7.3
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Not affected: 1 product
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-89759
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-cr6x-j7pj-fq6g
- 2026-10-19 Fix available: Linux/[email protected] · CNA
- 2026-10-21 Fix available: Linux/[email protected], Linux/Linux@f1cd6c4c35243377882c47236281d03ee3be6eeb · CNA
- 2026-10-21 1 new reference · CNA
- 2026-10-30 Fix available: Linux/Linux@2567818c2776d0a820506c3612261d9e24af7164, Linux/[email protected] · CNA
- 2026-10-30 1 new reference · CNA
- 2026-11-07 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
Other 6
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2567818c2776d0a820506c3612261d9e24af7164
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f1cd6c4c35243377882c47236281d03ee3be6eeb
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9a1b12c06c192290b8479de48f66f1e75d89c4b7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3fc8044251de21555fb02c365fa681bab8b0db55
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1838c704bcb4fd3556cf67513c6f97a39099e35c
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5d10d4e19e6daa487f0cd0ea6cba472325de92f9
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Sources
- CVE-2026-89759 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-89759 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-cr6x-j7pj-fq6g · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-89759 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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