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exit: prevent preemption of oopsing TASK_DEAD task

Type: advisorySource: Official CVE List1 source record

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: exit: prevent preemption of oopsing TASK_DEAD task When an already-exiting task oopses, make_task_dead() currently calls do_task_dead() with preemption enabled. That is forbidden: do_task_dead() calls __schedule(), which has a comment saying "WARNING: must be called with preemption disabled!". If an oopsing task is preempted in do_task_dead(), between becoming TASK_DEAD and entering the scheduler explicitly, bad things happen: finish_task_switch() assumes that once the scheduler has switched away from a TASK_DEAD task, the task can never run again and its stack is no longer needed; but that assumption apparently doesn't hold if the dead task was preempted (the SM_PREEMPT case). This means that the scheduler ends up repeatedly dropping references on the dead task's stack, which can lead to use-after-free or double-free of the entire task stack; in other words, two tasks can end up running on the same stack, resulting in various kinds of memory corruption. (This does not just affect "recursively oopsing" tasks; it is enough to oops once during task exit, for example in a file_operations::release handler)

Announced Source revision 1
Original source ↗

CVE-2026-46173

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-2026-46173

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": "7f80a2fd7db9a55894fd841915236aca611291b5",
        "lessThan": "3d6fb8a7690c23e3213c4b008f64d89a44b98737",
        "versionType": "git"
      },
      {
        "status": "affected",
        "version": "7f80a2fd7db9a55894fd841915236aca611291b5",
        "lessThan": "640b4c00fb0e2920327435f6176cbefc3c546165",
        "versionType": "git"
      },
      {
        "status": "affected",
        "version": "7f80a2fd7db9a55894fd841915236aca611291b5",
        "lessThan": "7b2800ba5f5f77a8ee7f4cbadb19cf1264597a34",
        "versionType": "git"
      },
      {
        "status": "affected",
        "version": "7f80a2fd7db9a55894fd841915236aca611291b5",
        "lessThan": "6f49f94f3b11fe8bff1bf2a054143789e76aaf17",
        "versionType": "git"
      },
      {
        "status": "affected",
        "version": "7f80a2fd7db9a55894fd841915236aca611291b5",
        "lessThan": "9756b3db5db6c2f5eccb32dddbd88eb4c54f575e",
        "versionType": "git"
      },
      {
        "status": "affected",
        "version": "7f80a2fd7db9a55894fd841915236aca611291b5",
        "lessThan": "c1fa0bb633e4a6b11e83ffc57fa5abe8ebb87891",
        "versionType": "git"
      }
    ],
    "programFiles": [
      "kernel/exit.c"
    ],
    "defaultStatus": "unaffected"
  },
  {
    "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
    "vendor": "Linux",
    "product": "Linux",
    "versions": [
      {
        "status": "affected",
        "version": "5.17"
      },
      {
        "status": "unaffected",
        "version": "0",
        "lessThan": "5.17",
        "versionType": "semver"
      },
      {
        "status": "unaffected",
        "version": "6.1.175",
        "versionType": "semver",
        "lessThanOrEqual": "6.1.*"
      },
      {
        "status": "unaffected",
        "version": "6.6.140",
        "versionType": "semver",
        "lessThanOrEqual": "6.6.*"
      },
      {
        "status": "unaffected",
        "version": "6.12.88",
        "versionType": "semver",
        "lessThanOrEqual": "6.12.*"
      },
      {
        "status": "unaffected",
        "version": "6.18.30",
        "versionType": "semver",
        "lessThanOrEqual": "6.18.*"
      },
      {
        "status": "unaffected",
        "version": "7.0.7",
        "versionType": "semver",
        "lessThanOrEqual": "7.0.*"
      },
      {
        "status": "unaffected",
        "version": "7.1",
        "versionType": "original_commit_for_fix",
        "lessThanOrEqual": "*"
      }
    ],
    "programFiles": [
      "kernel/exit.c"
    ],
    "defaultStatus": "affected"
  }
]
Related CVEs
CVE-2026-46173

Source reference: /cveMetadata/cveId

Publisher severity

high

Source reference: /containers/cna/metrics

Event
#40148 · Revision 1
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Publisher date
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