CVE-2026-53166 PUBLISHED

futex/requeue: Prevent NULL pointer dereference in remove_waiter() on self-deadlock

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 09.06.2026 Published: 25.06.2026 Updated: 25.06.2026

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

futex/requeue: Prevent NULL pointer dereference in remove_waiter() on self-deadlock

When FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI requeues a non-top waiter that already owns the target PI futex, task_blocks_on_rt_mutex() returns -EDEADLK before setting waiter->task.

The subsequent remove_waiter() in rt_mutex_start_proxy_lock() dereferences the NULL waiter->task, causing a kernel crash.

Add a self-deadlock check for non-top waiters before calling rt_mutex_start_proxy_lock(), analogous to the top-waiter check in futex_lock_pi_atomic().

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 3fb7394a837740770f0d6b4b30567e60786a63f2 to 16f8e17184b31382076f84751db5ac51fc02733e (excl.)
  • affected from 88614876370aac8ad1050ad785a4c095ba17ac11 to 1f2f3f3eacd6653ab215c5d2ea70811148d433fc (excl.)
  • affected from 3bfdc63936dd4773109b7b8c280c0f3b5ae7d349 to 74e144274af39935b0f410c0ee4d2b91c3730414 (excl.)
  • Version d8cce4773c2b23d819baf5abedc62f7b430e8745 is affected
  • Version 8a1fc8d698ac5e5916e3082a0f74450d71f9611f is affected
  • Version 6d52dfcb2a5db86e346cf51f8fcf2071b8085166 is affected
  • affected from 6.1.175 to 6.2 (excl.)
  • affected from 6.6.140 to 6.7 (excl.)
  • affected from 6.12.86 to 6.13 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 6.18.27 to 6.18.36 (excl.)
  • affected from 7.0.4 to 7.0.13 (excl.)

References