Bug 2566172 (CVE-2026-99244)

Summary: CVE-2026-99244 kernel: kernel: Denial of Service via busy-wait loop during PID namespace cleanup
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: low Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: unspecifiedCC: akhatavk, aos-team-art-private, asdas, dpaolell, jdelft, jupierce, lgarciaa, mbiarnes, ppalepu, ppostler, prdhamdh, rhel-process-autobot, sghai, sidsharm, suppawar, vlaad, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's process ID (PID) namespace subsystem. This vulnerability allows a local user to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) through excessive CPU consumption. During namespace cleanup, repeated internal signal notifications can prevent the process reaper from entering a sleep state as expected, trapping it in a continuous busy-wait loop.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-11-03 19:58:50 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

pid_namespace: prevent TIF_NOTIFY_SIGNAL from interrupting the reaper

Since commit 7fea700e04bd ("zap_pid_ns_processes: clear
TIF_NOTIFY_SIGNAL along with TIF_SIGPENDING") zap_pid_ns_processes()
clears TIF_NOTIFY_SIGNAL before every kernel_wait4() call. Otherwise
kernel_wait4() doesn't sleep and returns -ERESTARTSYS if
signal_pending() is true and the reaper busy-waits.

But clearing TIF_NOTIFY_SIGNAL doesn't fix it. It can get raised again.
For example, klp_send_signals() sets it raw against any task that hasn't
transitioned yet. And it keeps sending it until the livepatch finishes.

The sleep loop waiting for pid_allocated to drop has the same problem
and it doesn't even clear anything. So a schedule() in
TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE returns immediately.

Use a no_notify_signal guard. signal_pending() will ignore
TIF_NOTIFY_SIGNAL and the pid namespace reaper sleeps until a child
exits or free_pid() wakes it.