Bug 2549480 (CVE-2026-98385) - CVE-2026-98385 kernel: sched/cache: Decouple sched_cache_group from mm to fix UAF
Summary: CVE-2026-98385 kernel: sched/cache: Decouple sched_cache_group from mm to fix...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-98385
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-10-12 06:11 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-10-12 08:21 UTC (History)
17 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-12 06:11:24 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

sched/cache: Decouple sched_cache_group from mm to fix UAF

Currently the sched cache grouping is by mm and the scheduling statistics
sched_cache_stat lives in the mm structure.  This ties the life cycle
of scheduling stats with mm.

In account_mm_sched(), the scheduling stats are accessed by
task->mm->sc_stat.  However, a task may be switching mm on one CPU when
another CPU is running account_mm_sched(), and possibly accessing the
old mm that was freed.  This problem was found when running tests with
KASAN by Hyunwoo:

  https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/apPb-Dr4nPYuHQOK@v4bel/

Instead of serializing the mm access by introducing extra acquisition of
rq lock in the mm free path, extract sched_cache_stat from mm_struct,
rename it as sched_cache_group and manage its life cycle apart from
mm_struct with its own ref counting.  This allows us in the next patch
access sched_cache_group directly from task, and add a refcount
on sched_cache_group when a task links to it. This prevents the use
after free issue when accessing stale and released old mm and its
sched cache stat a task switches to a new mm while account_mm_sched()
is done elsewhere.

The other benefit of this restructure is in the future, the grouping of
tasks to a LLC would have the flexibility to be associated with a user
defined grouping, or cgroup, cookie group, numa_group or others instead
of just with a single mm address space.

Rename sched_cache_stat to sched_cache_group and turn it into a refcounted
object allocated from mm_struct.  The mm_struct now holds a pointer
(sched_cache_grp) to this object instead of embedding it.


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