Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
sched/fair: Fix zero_vruntime tracking fix
John reported that stress-ng-yield could make his machine unhappy and
managed to bisect it to commit b3d99f43c72b ("sched/fair: Fix
zero_vruntime tracking").
The combination of yield and that commit was specific enough to
hypothesize the following scenario:
Suppose we have 2 runnable tasks, both doing yield. Then one will be
eligible and one will not be, because the average position must be in
between these two entities.
Therefore, the runnable task will be eligible, and be promoted a full
slice (all the tasks do is yield after all). This causes it to jump over
the other task and now the other task is eligible and current is no
longer. So we schedule.
Since we are runnable, there is no {de,en}queue. All we have is the
__{en,de}queue_entity() from {put_prev,set_next}_task(). But per the
fingered commit, those two no longer move zero_vruntime.
All that moves zero_vruntime are tick and full {de,en}queue.
This means, that if the two tasks playing leapfrog can reach the
critical speed to reach the overflow point inside one tick's worth of
time, we're up a creek.
Additionally, when multiple cgroups are involved, there is no guarantee
the tick will in fact hit every cgroup in a timely manner. Statistically
speaking it will, but that same statistics does not rule out the
possibility of one cgroup not getting a tick for a significant amount of
time -- however unlikely.
Therefore, just like with the yield() case, force an update at the end
of every slice. This ensures the update is never more than a single
slice behind and the whole thing is within 2 lag bounds as per the
comment on entity_key().
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 6.12.78 – < 6.12.81, 6.18.17 – < 6.18.22, 6.19.7 – < 6.19.12 | 6.12.81 |
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 | 6.19.12-1 | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | linux-nvidia | 7.0.0-1006.6 | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | linux-riscv +15 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | linux-riscv +32 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | linux-gke +28 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-gcp +14 | No fix yet | — |
Show 2 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | linux-hwe-edge | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS | linux-realtime-6.14 | No fix yet | — |
Amazon Linux
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Linux 2023 | kernel-livepatch-6.18.25-52.107 +1 | 1:1.0-0.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-1746, ALAS2023-2026-1695 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perf6.12 +11 | 1:6.12.83-113.160.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-1695 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perf6.18 +11 | 1:6.18.25-52.107.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-1746 |
Advisories 3
- WID-SEC-2026-1454 Linux Kernel: Mehrere Schwachstellen BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Nov 12, 2026
- ALAS2023-2026-1746 Important: kernel6.18 security update (Amazon Linux 2023) Amazon Linux Security Center (ALAS) · Jul 1, 2026
- ALAS2023-2026-1695 Important: kernel6.12 security update (Amazon Linux 2023) Amazon Linux Security Center (ALAS) · May 19, 2026