Upstream information

CVE-2026-46223 at MITRE

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.

SUSE information

Overall state of this security issue: New

This issue is currently rated as having not set severity.

Note from the SUSE Security Team on the kernel-default package

SUSE will no longer fix all CVEs in the Linux Kernel anymore, but declare some bug classes as won't fix. Please refer to TID 21496 for more details.

No SUSE Bugzilla entries cross referenced.

No SUSE Security Announcements cross referenced.


Status of this issue by product and package

Please note that this evaluation state might be work in progress, incomplete or outdated. Also information for service packs in the LTSS phase is only included for issues meeting the LTSS criteria. If in doubt, feel free to contact us for clarification. The updates are grouped by state of their lifecycle. SUSE product lifecycles are documented on the lifecycle page.

Product(s) Source package State
Products under general support and receiving all security fixes.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP7 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP7 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 kernel-rt Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 kernel-source-rt Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 kernel-rt Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 kernel-source-rt Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 kernel-source-rt Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Legacy 15 SP7 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Legacy 15 SP7 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP7 kernel-source-rt Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.1 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP7 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP7 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.0 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.0 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.1 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension 15 SP7 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension 15 SP7 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Micro 6.0 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Micro 6.0 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Micro 6.0 kernel-source-rt Analysis
SUSE Linux Micro 6.1 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Micro 6.1 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Micro 6.1 kernel-source-rt Analysis
SUSE Linux Micro 6.2 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Micro 6.2 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Real Time Module 15 SP7 kernel-source-rt Analysis
openSUSE Leap 16.0 kernel-source Analysis
Products under Long Term Service Pack support and receiving important and critical security fixes.
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching 12 SP5 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching 12 SP5 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP4 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP4 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP5 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP5 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP4 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP5 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP6 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP4 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP5 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP6 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 LTSS EXTREME CORE kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 LTSS EXTREME CORE kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5-LTSS kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5-LTSS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5-LTSS Extended Security kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5-LTSS Extended Security kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Manager Proxy LTS 4.3 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.3 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server LTS 4.3 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Manager Server 4.3 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Manager Server LTS 4.3 kernel-source Analysis
Products past their end of life and not receiving proactive updates anymore.
SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Enterprise Storage 6 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Enterprise Storage 7 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Enterprise Storage 7.1 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 SP4 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP4 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP1 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP2 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP3 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP4 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP5 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP6 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1-ESPOS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1-LTSS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-ESPOS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-LTSS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-ESPOS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP6 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.0 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.1 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.2 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.2 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP1 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP2 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP3 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP1 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP2 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP3 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP2 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP3 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP4 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP4 kernel-source-rt Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP5 kernel-source-rt Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4-LTSS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4-ESPOS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4-LTSS kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4-LTSS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1-BCL kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1-LTSS kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1-LTSS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-BCL kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-LTSS kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-LTSS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-BCL kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-LTSS kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-LTSS kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP4 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP1 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP2 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP3 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 kernel-default Analysis
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Manager Proxy 4.0 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Manager Proxy 4.1 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Manager Proxy 4.2 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.0 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.1 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.2 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Manager Server 4.0 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Manager Server 4.1 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Manager Server 4.2 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE OpenStack Cloud 9 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9 kernel-source Analysis
SUSE Real Time Module 15 SP4 kernel-source-rt Analysis
SUSE Real Time Module 15 SP5 kernel-source-rt Analysis
openSUSE Leap 15.3 kernel-source Analysis
openSUSE Leap 15.4 kernel-source Analysis
openSUSE Leap 15.4 kernel-source-rt Analysis
openSUSE Leap 15.5 kernel-source Analysis
openSUSE Leap 15.5 kernel-source-rt Analysis
openSUSE Leap 15.6 kernel-source Analysis


SUSE Timeline for this CVE

CVE page created: Thu May 28 12:02:54 2026
CVE page last modified: Thu May 28 13:30:43 2026