Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm: vmscan: remove deadlock due to throttling failing to make progress
A soft lockup bug in kcompactd was reported in a private bugzilla with
the following visible in dmesg;
watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#33 stuck for 26s! [kcompactd0:479]
watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#33 stuck for 52s! [kcompactd0:479]
watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#33 stuck for 78s! [kcompactd0:479]
watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#33 stuck for 104s! [kcompactd0:479]
The machine had 256G of RAM with no swap and an earlier failed
allocation indicated that node 0 where kcompactd was run was potentially
unreclaimable;
Node 0 active_anon:29355112kB inactive_anon:2913528kB active_file:0kB
inactive_file:0kB unevictable:64kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB
mapped:8kB dirty:0kB writeback:0kB shmem:26780kB shmem_thp:
0kB shmem_pmdmapped: 0kB anon_thp: 23480320kB writeback_tmp:0kB
kernel_stack:2272kB pagetables:24500kB all_unreclaimable? yes
Vlastimil Babka investigated a crash dump and found that a task
migrating pages was trying to drain PCP lists;
PID: 52922 TASK: ffff969f820e5000 CPU: 19 COMMAND: "kworker/u128:3"
Call Trace:
__schedule
schedule
schedule_timeout
wait_for_completion
__flush_work
__drain_all_pages
__alloc_pages_slowpath.constprop.114
__alloc_pages
alloc_migration_target
migrate_pages
migrate_to_node
do_migrate_pages
cpuset_migrate_mm_workfn
process_one_work
worker_thread
kthread
ret_from_fork
This failure is specific to CONFIG_PREEMPT=n builds. The root of the
problem is that kcompact0 is not rescheduling on a CPU while a task that
has isolated a large number of the pages from the LRU is waiting on
kcompact0 to reschedule so the pages can be released. While
shrink_inactive_list() only loops once around too_many_isolated, reclaim
can continue without rescheduling if sc->skipped_deactivate == 1 which
could happen if there was no file LRU and the inactive anon list was not
low.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 5.16 | 5.16.10 |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | linux | 5.16.10-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | linux | 5.16.10-1 | — |
| Debian 12 | linux | 5.16.10-1 | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | linux-riscv +23 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | linux-gke +26 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-gcp +14 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | linux-hwe-edge | No fix yet | — |
SUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| SLES 15 SP5 | kernel-64kb +5 | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| SLES 15 SP5 | kernel-azure +2 | 5.14.21-150500.33.63.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2947-1 |
| SLES 15 SP5 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1.150500.6.33.8 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| SLES 15 SP5 | kernel-docs | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.2 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| SLES 15 SP4 | kernel-64kb +6 | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLES 15 SP4 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1.150400.24.62.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
Show 10 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| SLES for SAP 15 SP4 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1.150400.24.62.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLES for SAP 15 SP4 | kernel-docs +4 | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.5 | kernel-default | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.5 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1.150500.6.33.8 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.5 | kernel-rt +1 | 5.14.21-150500.13.64.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2894-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.4 | kernel-default | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.4 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1.150400.24.62.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.4 | kernel-rt +1 | 5.14.21-150400.15.88.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2902-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.3 | kernel-default | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.3 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1.150400.24.62.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.3 | kernel-rt +1 | 5.14.21-150400.15.88.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2902-1 |
| SLE Live Patching 15 SP5 | kernel-default | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| SLE Live Patching 15 SP5 | kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP5_Update_17 +1 | 1-150500.11.3.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1, SUSE-SU-2024:2894-1 |
| SLE Live Patching 15 SP4 | kernel-default | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLE Live Patching 15 SP4 | kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP4_Update_29 | 1-150400.9.3.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLE HPC 15 SP4 | kernel-64kb +5 | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLE HPC 15 SP4 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1.150400.24.62.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SUSE Real Time Module 15 SP5 | kernel-rt +3 | 5.14.21-150500.13.64.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2894-1 |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.3 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1.150400.24.62.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.3 | kernel-syms +3 | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1.150400.24.62.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3 | kernel-syms +2 | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
openSUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | dtb-aarch64 +9 | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | kernel-azure +2 | 5.14.21-150500.33.63.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2947-1 |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1.150500.6.33.8 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | kernel-docs | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.2 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | kernel-rt +3 | 5.14.21-150500.13.64.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2894-1 |
Show 1 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5 | kernel-default | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1.150500.6.33.8 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5 | kernel-rt | 5.14.21-150500.13.64.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2894-1 |
Advisories 6
- WID-SEC-2024-1625 Linux Kernel: Mehrere Schwachstellen ermöglichen nicht spezifizierten Angriff BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Jul 27, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2024:2947-1 Security update for the Linux Kernel SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 Security update for the Linux Kernel SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2024:2902-1 Security update for the Linux Kernel SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 Security update for the Linux Kernel SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2024:2894-1 Security update for the Linux Kernel SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · May 2, 2025