Bug 2513137 (CVE-2026-68090) - CVE-2026-68090 kernel: debugobjects: Plug race against a concurrent OOM disable
Summary: CVE-2026-68090 kernel: debugobjects: Plug race against a concurrent OOM disable
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-68090
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
low
low
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-08-10 12:01 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-08-11 10:05 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
Embargoed:


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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-10 12:01:58 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

debugobjects: Plug race against a concurrent OOM disable

syzbot reported a puzzling splat:

   WARNING: kernel/time/hrtimer.c:443 at stub_timer+0xa/0x20

stub_timer() is installed as timer callback function in
hrtimer_fixup_assert_init(), which is invoked when
debug_object_assert_init() can't find a shadow object. In that case debug
objects emits a warning about it before invoking the fixup.

Though the provided console log lacks this warning and instead has the
following a few seconds before the splat:

     ODEBUG: Out of memory. ODEBUG disabled

So the object was looked up in debug_object_assert_init() and the lookup
failed due a concurrent out of memory situation which disabled debug
objects and freed the shadow objects:

debug_object_assert_init()
        if (!debug_objects_enabled)
        	return;                         obj = alloc();
                				if (!obj) {
							// Out of memory
                                                	debug_objects_enabled = false;
                                                        free_objects();
        obj = lookup_or_alloc();

        // The lookup failed because the other side
        // removed the objects, so this returns
        // an error code as the object in question
        // is not statically initialized

	if (!IS_ERR_OR_NULL(obj))
        	return;
        if (!obj) {
        	debug_oom();
                return;
        }

        print(...)
           if (!debug_objects_enabled)
                return;

        fixup(...)

The debug object splat is skipped because debug_objects_enabled is false,
but the fixup callback is invoked unconditionally, which makes the timer
disfunctional.

This is only a problem in debug_object_assert_init() and
debug_object_activate() as both have to handle statically initialized
objects and therefore must handle the error pointer return case
gracefully. All other places only handle the found/not found case and the
NULL pointer return is a signal for OOM. Otherwise they get a valid shadow
object.

Plug the hole by checking whether debug objects are still enabled before
invoking the print and fixup function in those two places.


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