Bug 2486404 (CVE-2026-46274)

Summary: CVE-2026-46274 kernel: io-wq: check that the predecessor is hashed in io_wq_remove_pending()
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's input/output work queue (io-wq) component. This vulnerability occurs because the system incorrectly handles work queue entries, leading to a stale pointer. A local attacker could exploit this issue by manipulating work queue operations. Successful exploitation could allow the attacker to write to freed memory, potentially leading to privilege escalation or a system crash (denial of service).
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-06-08 16:02:21 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

io-wq: check that the predecessor is hashed in io_wq_remove_pending()

io_wq_remove_pending() needs to fix up wq->hash_tail[] if the cancelled
work was the tail of its hash bucket. When doing this, it checks whether
the preceding entry in acct->work_list has the same hash value, but
never checks that the predecessor is hashed at all. io_get_work_hash()
is simply atomic_read(&work->flags) >> IO_WQ_HASH_SHIFT, and the hash
bits are never set for non-hashed work, so it returns 0. Thus, when a
hashed bucket-0 work is cancelled while a non-hashed work is its list
predecessor, the check spuriously passes and a pointer to the non-hashed
io_kiocb is stored in wq->hash_tail[0].

Because non-hashed work is dequeued via the fast path in
io_get_next_work(), which never touches hash_tail[], the stale pointer
is never cleared. Therefore, after the non-hashed io_kiocb completes and
is freed back to req_cachep, wq->hash_tail[0] is a dangling pointer. The
io_wq is per-task (tctx->io_wq) and survives ring open/close, so the
dangling pointer persists for the lifetime of the task; the next hashed
bucket-0 enqueue dereferences it in io_wq_insert_work() and
wq_list_add_after() writes through freed memory.

Add the missing io_wq_is_hashed() check so a non-hashed predecessor
never inherits a hash_tail[] slot.