CVE-2026-98789 PUBLISHED

bpf: Fix objects stuck in free_by_rcu_ttrace

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 25.09.2026 Published: 18.10.2026 Updated: 18.10.2026

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

bpf: Fix objects stuck in free_by_rcu_ttrace

do_call_rcu_ttrace() returns early when call_rcu_ttrace_in_progress is set and leaves the objects in free_by_rcu_ttrace. __free_rcu() frees waiting_for_gp_ttrace only and clears the flag. Hence the objects that free_bulk() or __free_by_rcu() added while RCU tasks trace GP was in flight stay in free_by_rcu_ttrace until free_bulk() or alloc_bulk() is called for the same bpf_mem_cache again, which may never happen. The number of such objects is not bounded.

Turn call_rcu_ttrace_in_progress into three states: 0 - idle 1 - __free_rcu() is queued 2 - __free_rcu() is queued and free_by_rcu_ttrace got more objects since

do_call_rcu_ttrace() sets 2. __free_rcu() does cmpxchg(1 -> 0) and starts the next GP when it fails. It cannot clear the flag first and check free_by_rcu_ttrace later, since bpf_mem_alloc_destroy() frees bpf_mem_cache without waiting for RCU callbacks when the flag is zero.

Now __free_rcu() queues itself, so the one that didn't see 'draining' may do call_rcu_tasks_trace() after rcu_barrier_tasks_trace() in free_mem_alloc(). Queue it under rcu_read_lock() and do synchronize_rcu() before the barriers. Calling rcu_barrier_tasks_trace() twice works too, but creating and destroying hash maps in a loop on many cpus slows down to one free_mem_alloc() per GP and kworkers pile up.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 8d5a8011b35d387c490a5c977b1d9eb4798aa071 to 33d0a5d2fee06a51f2f056dd901296515912e954 (excl.)
  • affected from 8d5a8011b35d387c490a5c977b1d9eb4798aa071 to fbd97dd1d3ce32d32fb7be86acc3fdb7c04fa043 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 6.1 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 6.1 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2.10 to 7.2.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.3-rc6 to * (incl.)

References