CVE-2026-98079 PUBLISHED

btrfs: zstd: fix lost wakeup when waiting for a workspace

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 25.09.2026 Published: 25.09.2026 Updated: 25.09.2026

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

btrfs: zstd: fix lost wakeup when waiting for a workspace

A writer can sleep forever in zstd_get_workspace() even though a workspace is free. When zstd_alloc_workspace() fails, the task is queued on zwsm->wait and schedules unconditionally, never re-testing the pool. zstd_put_workspace() publishes the workspace and then calls cond_wake_up(), which only wakes when a sleeper is already visible, so a workspace returned between the failed allocation and prepare_to_wait() wakes nobody. The window is wide: zstd_alloc_workspace() goes through kvmalloc() and may enter reclaim.

Only a max level workspace triggers the wakeup and one is deliberately kept allocated as the fallback every waiter waits for, so once its wakeup is lost the writer stays in TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE until some other task happens to return one. Re-check the pool after prepare_to_wait() has published the waiter, and use the workspace if one turned up.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 3f93aef535c8ea03e40cd8acf0753b3e6ed33e96 to d8f57049521948df5f50797141472fbbed3b0723 (excl.)
  • affected from 3f93aef535c8ea03e40cd8acf0753b3e6ed33e96 to 0de9f31d447ae71ab08c7850a321682f8d2907c3 (excl.)
  • affected from 3f93aef535c8ea03e40cd8acf0753b3e6ed33e96 to 2acb9f3d1cc8f65dc81ed55e238cbf8e5b60bff7 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 5.1 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 5.1 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.53 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2.7 to 7.2.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.3-rc2 to * (incl.)

References