{ "dataType": "CVE_RECORD", "dataVersion": "5.2", "cveMetadata": { "cveId": "CVE-2026-46223", "assignerOrgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67", "state": "PUBLISHED", "assignerShortName": "Linux", "dateReserved": "2026-05-13T15:03:33.106Z", "datePublished": "2026-05-28T09:40:40.791Z", "dateUpdated": "2026-06-14T18:03:52.610Z" }, "containers": { "cna": { "providerMetadata": { "orgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67", "shortName": "Linux", "dateUpdated": "2026-06-14T18:03:52.610Z" }, "descriptions": [ { "lang": "en", "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\ncgroup: Defer css percpu_ref kill on rmdir until cgroup is depopulated\n\nA chain of commits going back to v7.0 reworked rmdir to satisfy the\ncontroller invariant that a subsystem's ->css_offline() must not run while\ntasks are still doing kernel-side work in the cgroup.\n\n[1] d245698d727a (\"cgroup: Defer task cgroup unlink until after the task is done switching out\")\n[2] a72f73c4dd9b (\"cgroup: Don't expose dead tasks in cgroup\")\n[3] 1b164b876c36 (\"cgroup: Wait for dying tasks to leave on rmdir\")\n[4] 4c56a8ac6869 (\"cgroup: Fix cgroup_drain_dying() testing the wrong condition\")\n[5] 13e786b64bd3 (\"cgroup: Increment nr_dying_subsys_* from rmdir context\")\n\n[1] moved task cset unlink from do_exit() to finish_task_switch() so a\ntask's cset link drops only after the task has fully stopped scheduling.\nThat made tasks past exit_signals() linger on cset->tasks until their final\ncontext switch, which led to a series of problems as what userspace expected\nto see after rmdir diverged from what the kernel needs to wait for. [2]-[5]\ntried to bridge that divergence: [2] filtered the exiting tasks from\ncgroup.procs; [3] had rmdir(2) sleep in TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE for them; [4]\nfixed the wait's condition; [5] made nr_dying_subsys_* visible\nsynchronously.\n\nThe cgroup_drain_dying() wait in [3] turned out to be a dead end. When the\nrmdir caller is also the reaper of a zombie that pins a pidns teardown (e.g.\nhost PID 1 systemd reaping orphan pids that were re-parented to it during\nthe same teardown), rmdir blocks in TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE waiting for those\npids to free, the pids can't free because PID 1 is the reaper and it's stuck\nin rmdir, and the system A-A deadlocks. No internal lock ordering breaks\nthis; the wait itself is the bug.\n\nThe css killing side that drove the original reorder, however, can be made\ncleanly asynchronous: ->css_offline() is already async, run from\ncss_killed_work_fn() driven by percpu_ref_kill_and_confirm(). The fix is to\nmake that chain start only after all tasks have left the cgroup. rmdir's\nuser-visible side then returns as soon as cgroup.procs and friends are\nempty, while ->css_offline() still runs only after the cgroup is fully\ndrained.\n\nVerified by the original reproducer (pidns teardown + zombie reaper, runs\nunder vng) which hangs vanilla and succeeds here, and by per-commit\ndeterministic repros for [2], [3], [4], [5] with a boot parameter that\nwidens the post-exit_signals() window so each state is reliably reachable.\nSome stress tests on top of that.\n\ncgroup_apply_control_disable() has the same shape of pre-existing race:\nwhen a controller is disabled via subtree_control, kill_css() ran\nsynchronously while tasks past exit_signals() could still be linked to\nthe cgroup's csets, and ->css_offline() could fire before they drained.\nThis patch preserves the existing synchronous behavior at that call site\n(kill_css_sync() + kill_css_finish() back-to-back) and a follow-up patch\nwill defer kill_css_finish() there using a per-css trigger.\n\nThis seems like the right approach and I don't see problems with it. The\nchanges are somewhat invasive but not excessively so, so backporting to\n-stable should be okay. If something does turn out to be wrong, the fallback\nis to revert the entire chain ([1]-[5]) and rework in the development branch\ninstead.\n\nv2: Pin cgrp across the deferred destroy work with explicit\n cgroup_get()/cgroup_put() around queue_work() and the work_fn. v1\n wasn't actually broken (ordered cgroup_offline_wq + queue_work order\n in cgroup_task_dead() saved it) but the explicit ref removes the\n dependency on those non-obvious invariants. Also note the\n pre-existing cgroup_apply_control_disable() race in the description;\n a follow-up will defer kill_css_finish() there." } ], "affected": [ { "product": "Linux", "vendor": "Linux", "defaultStatus": "unaffected", "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git", "programFiles": [ "include/linux/cgroup-defs.h", "kernel/cgroup/cgroup.c" ], "versions": [ { "version": "1b164b876c36c3eb5561dd9b37702b04401b0166", "lessThan": "33fa2e6b1507a0a377a151a8826438bedad1d0b0", "status": "affected", "versionType": "git" }, { "version": "1b164b876c36c3eb5561dd9b37702b04401b0166", "lessThan": "93618edf753838a727dbff63c7c291dee22d656b", "status": "affected", "versionType": "git" }, { "version": "78c72bce4a87819126211c0d24e18350010604fb", "status": "affected", "versionType": "git" }, { "version": "6.19.12", "lessThan": "6.20", "status": "affected", "versionType": "semver" } ] }, { "product": "Linux", "vendor": "Linux", "defaultStatus": "affected", "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git", "programFiles": [ "include/linux/cgroup-defs.h", "kernel/cgroup/cgroup.c" ], "versions": [ { "version": "7.0", "status": "affected" }, { "version": "0", "lessThan": "7.0", "status": "unaffected", "versionType": "semver" }, { "version": "7.0.9", "lessThanOrEqual": "7.0.*", "status": "unaffected", "versionType": "semver" }, { "version": "7.1", "lessThanOrEqual": "*", "status": "unaffected", "versionType": "original_commit_for_fix" } ] } ], "cpeApplicability": [ { "nodes": [ { "operator": "OR", "negate": false, "cpeMatch": [ { "vulnerable": true, "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*", "versionStartIncluding": "7.0", "versionEndExcluding": "7.0.9" }, { "vulnerable": true, "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*", "versionStartIncluding": "7.0", "versionEndExcluding": "7.1" }, { "vulnerable": true, "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*", "versionStartIncluding": "6.19.12" } ] } ] } ], "references": [ { "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/33fa2e6b1507a0a377a151a8826438bedad1d0b0" }, { "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/93618edf753838a727dbff63c7c291dee22d656b" } ], "title": "cgroup: Defer css percpu_ref kill on rmdir until cgroup is depopulated", "x_generator": { "engine": "bippy-1.2.0" } } } }