Bug 2516917 (CVE-2026-74284)

Summary: CVE-2026-74284 kernel: net/sched: sch_hfsc: Don't make class passive twice
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
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Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Hierarchical Fair Service Curve (HFSC) queueing discipline (`sch_hfsc`). When a child qdisc drops its last packets, the `update_vf()` function can be called twice for the same class, causing it to be marked passive multiple times. This double transition can lead to a parent class being incorrectly removed from the virtual time tree (`vttree`), even if other active children exist. Consequently, the qdisc can stall, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) where packet processing ceases.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 06:40:17 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net/sched: sch_hfsc: Don't make class passive twice

update_vf() is called from two places for the same class during a single
dequeue when the class's child qdisc (e.g. codel/fq_codel) drops its last
packets while dequeuing:

1. The child calls qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog(), which, now that the child
   is empty, invokes hfsc_qlen_notify() -> update_vf(cl, 0, 0) and turns
   the class passive (cl_nactive is decremented up the hierarchy).

2. hfsc_dequeue() then calls update_vf(cl, qdisc_pkt_len(skb), cur_time)
   to charge the dequeued bytes.

On the second call the class is already passive, but its child qdisc is
still empty, so update_vf() arms go_passive again:

      if (cl->qdisc->q.qlen == 0 && cl->cl_flags & HFSC_FSC)
              go_passive = 1;

The leaf is then skipped by the cl_nactive == 0 check inside the loop,
which does not clear go_passive, so the stale go_passive propagates to the
parent and decrements its cl_nactive a second time. A parent that still
has other active children is driven to cl_nactive == 0 and removed from
the vttree, even though those siblings are still backlogged. They are
never dequeued again and the qdisc stalls.

Fix this by only arming go_passive when the class is actually active, so an
already-passive class no longer triggers a second passive transition. The
byte accounting (cl->cl_total += len) still runs for every ancestor, so
dequeued bytes continue to be counted exactly once.