sched_ext: Fix rq->core_pick corruption under core scheduling
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sched_ext: Fix rq->core_pick corruption under core scheduling Core scheduling's pick_next_task() picks what to run on every SMT sibling of the core in a single pass under the shared core-wide rq lock. The selection state is consistent only while the lock is held continuously, so ->pick_task() originally could not release it. However, since 4c95380701f5 ("sched/ext: Fold balance_scx() into pick_task_scx()"), sched_ext runs dispatch from inside the pick and dispatching can drop the rq lock. To support this, pick_next_task() has been updated to restart the whole selection when a pick returns RETRY_TASK after releasing the lock. When selections on the same core interleave through the dropped lock, they corrupt each other's state: one clears the other's rq->core_pick leading to a NULL deref, or invalidates its keep-the-previous-task decision leaving a dequeued task running, which deadlocks the next wakeup and matches the reported hard hangs. A cookied ping-pong load on an SMT machine makes the interleavings frequent and kills the kernel within seconds. Fix it by making the pick return RETRY_TASK whenever dispatch released the rq lock, so that a selection only ever commits picks made under a continuously held lock. The previous patch's rq->scx.lock_drop_seq counts the releases. A dispatch that touched nothing never releases the lock and its verdict, including "nothing to run", stands: retries are bounded, each foll
CVE-2026-89517
Primary source · Revision 1
Imported from structured advisory data. Source references identify upstream records or fields; verify affected versions and your deployed configuration.
Security context
Source reference: cve:CVE-2026-89517
Linux
Source reference: /containers/cna/affected/0/product
- Affected versions
- Not stated in this record
- Fixed versions
- Not stated in this record
- Prerequisites
- Not stated in this record
Linux
Source reference: /containers/cna/affected/1/product
- Affected versions
- Not stated in this record
- Fixed versions
- Not stated in this record
- Prerequisites
- Not stated in this record
Structured affected-version data
Original package identities and version rules from this source.
[
{
"repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
"vendor": "Linux",
"product": "Linux",
"versions": [
{
"status": "affected",
"version": "4c95380701f58b8112f0b891de8d160e4199e19d",
"lessThan": "cdafb68155bee2d5c4e50c12e4606323e9334e6b",
"versionType": "git"
},
{
"status": "affected",
"version": "4c95380701f58b8112f0b891de8d160e4199e19d",
"lessThan": "d954004205c1a1d3f59ce8482b559266c15600fa",
"versionType": "git"
}
],
"programFiles": [
"kernel/sched/ext/ext.c"
],
"defaultStatus": "unaffected"
},
{
"repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
"vendor": "Linux",
"product": "Linux",
"versions": [
{
"status": "affected",
"version": "6.19"
},
{
"status": "unaffected",
"version": "0",
"lessThan": "6.19",
"versionType": "semver"
},
{
"status": "unaffected",
"version": "7.2.4",
"versionType": "semver",
"lessThanOrEqual": "7.2.*"
},
{
"status": "unaffected",
"version": "7.3",
"versionType": "original_commit_for_fix",
"lessThanOrEqual": "*"
}
],
"programFiles": [
"kernel/sched/ext/ext.c"
],
"defaultStatus": "affected"
}
]- Related CVEs
- CVE-2026-89517
Source reference:
/cveMetadata/cveId
Publisher severity
No explicit severity was provided.
- Event
- #35045 · Revision 1
- Added to Heist Feed
- Publisher date