Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
cgroup: Defer css percpu_ref kill on rmdir until cgroup is depopulated
A chain of commits going back to v7.0 reworked rmdir to satisfy the
controller invariant that a subsystem's ->css_offline() must not run while
tasks are still doing kernel-side work in the cgroup.
[1] d245698d727a ("cgroup: Defer task cgroup unlink until after the task is done switching out")
[2] a72f73c4dd9b ("cgroup: Don't expose dead tasks in cgroup")
[3] 1b164b876c36 ("cgroup: Wait for dying tasks to leave on rmdir")
[4] 4c56a8ac6869 ("cgroup: Fix cgroup_drain_dying() testing the wrong condition")
[5] 13e786b64bd3 ("cgroup: Increment nr_dying_subsys_* from rmdir context")
[1] moved task cset unlink from do_exit() to finish_task_switch() so a
task's cset link drops only after the task has fully stopped scheduling.
That made tasks past exit_signals() linger on cset->tasks until their final
context switch, which led to a series of problems as what userspace expected
to see after rmdir diverged from what the kernel needs to wait for. [2]-[5]
tried to bridge that divergence: [2] filtered the exiting tasks from
cgroup.procs; [3] had rmdir(2) sleep in TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE for them; [4]
fixed the wait's condition; [5] made nr_dying_subsys_* visible
synchronously.
The cgroup_drain_dying() wait in [3] turned out to be a dead end. When the
rmdir caller is also the reaper of a zombie that pins a pidns teardown (e.g.
host PID 1 systemd reaping orphan pids that were re-parented to it during
the same teardown), rmdir blocks in TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE waiting for those
pids to free, the pids can't free because PID 1 is the reaper and it's stuck
in rmdir, and the system A-A deadlocks. No internal lock ordering breaks
this; the wait itself is the bug.
The css killing side that drove the original reorder, however, can be made
cleanly asynchronous: ->css_offline() is already async, run from
css_killed_work_fn() driven by percpu_ref_kill_and_confirm(). The fix is to
make that chain start only after all tasks have left the cgroup. rmdir's
user-visible side then returns as soon as cgroup.procs and friends are
empty, while ->css_offline() still runs only after the cgroup is fully
drained.
Verified by the original reproducer (pidns teardown + zombie reaper, runs
under vng) which hangs vanilla and succeeds here, and by per-commit
deterministic repros for [2], [3], [4], [5] with a boot parameter that
widens the post-exit_signals() window so each state is reliably reachable.
Some stress tests on top of that.
cgroup_apply_control_disable() has the same shape of pre-existing race:
when a controller is disabled via subtree_control, kill_css() ran
synchronously while tasks past exit_signals() could still be linked to
the cgroup's csets, and ->css_offline() could fire before they drained.
This patch preserves the existing synchronous behavior at that call site
(kill_css_sync() + kill_css_finish() back-to-back) and a follow-up patch
will defer kill_css_finish() there using a per-css trigger.
This seems like the right approach and I don't see problems with it. The
changes are somewhat invasive but not excessively so, so backporting to
-stable should be okay. If something does turn out to be wrong, the fallback
is to revert the entire chain ([1]-[5]) and rework in the development branch
instead.
v2: Pin cgrp across the deferred destroy work with explicit
cgroup_get()/cgroup_put() around queue_work() and the work_fn. v1
wasn't actually broken (ordered cgroup_offline_wq + queue_work order
in cgroup_task_dead() saved it) but the explicit ref removes the
dependency on those non-obvious invariants. Also note the
pre-existing cgroup_apply_control_disable() race in the description;
a follow-up will defer kill_css_finish() there.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 6.19.12 – < 6.20, 7.0 | 6.20 |
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 | 7.0.9-1 | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | linux | 7.0.0-28.28 | USN-8566-1 |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | linux-aws +2 | 7.0.0-1009.9 | USN-8618-1, USN-8603-1, USN-8568-1 |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | linux-gcp +1 | 7.0.0-1008.8 | USN-8593-1, USN-8566-1 |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | linux-gke | 7.0.0-1003.4 | USN-8566-1 |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | linux-ibm +1 | 7.0.0-1010.10 | USN-8603-1, USN-8593-1 |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | linux-nvidia | 7.0.0-1016.16 | USN-8663-1 |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | linux-nvidia-bos | 7.0.0-2016.16 | USN-8664-1 |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | linux-raspi | 7.0.0-1015.15 | USN-8618-1 |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | linux-riscv +1 | 7.0.0-28.28.1 | USN-8566-1 |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | linux-azure-7.0 | 7.0.0-1014.14~24.04.1 | USN-8728-2 |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | linux-azure-fde-7.0 | 7.0.0-1013.13~24.04.1 | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | linux-gcp-7.0 +1 | 7.0.0-1011.11~24.04.1 | USN-8728-3, USN-8728-1 |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | linux-hwe-7.0 | 7.0.0-28.28~24.04.1 | USN-8569-1 |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | linux-nvidia-7.0 | 7.0.0-1016.16~24.04.1 | USN-8663-1 |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | linux-riscv +15 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | linux-riscv-7.0 | 7.0.0-28.28.1~24.04.3 | — |
| 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 | — |
openSUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| openSUSE Tumbleweed | kernel-source | 7.0.11-1.1 | openSUSE-SU-2026:10954-1 |
Advisories 13
- WID-SEC-2026-1700 Linux Kernel: Mehrere Schwachstellen BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Nov 12, 2026
- USN-8728-1 linux-gcp-7.0 vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Nov 12, 2026
- USN-8728-2 linux-azure-7.0 vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Nov 12, 2026
- USN-8728-3 linux-oracle-7.0 vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Nov 12, 2026
- USN-8593-1 linux-ibm, linux-oracle vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Nov 9, 2026
- USN-8664-1 linux-nvidia-bos vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Nov 9, 2026
- USN-8603-1 linux-azure, linux-azure-fde vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Nov 9, 2026
- USN-8663-1 linux-nvidia, linux-nvidia-7.0 vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Nov 9, 2026
- USN-8618-1 linux-aws, linux-raspi vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Nov 9, 2026
- USN-8566-1 linux, linux-gcp, linux-gke, linux-realtime vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Nov 7, 2026
- USN-8569-1 linux-hwe-7.0 vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Nov 7, 2026
- USN-8568-1 linux-oem-7.0 vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Nov 7, 2026
- openSUSE-SU-2026:10954-1 kernel-devel-7.0.11-1.1 on GA media SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Jun 5, 2026