Bug 2554922 (CVE-2026-98542) - CVE-2026-98542 kernel: cgroup/cpuset: Return PERR_NOCPUS in remote_partition_enable() on subpartitions_cpus conflict
Summary: CVE-2026-98542 kernel: cgroup/cpuset: Return PERR_NOCPUS in remote_partition_...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-98542
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
low
low
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-10-18 15:32 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-10-19 22:56 UTC (History)
17 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-18 15:32:51 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

cgroup/cpuset: Return PERR_NOCPUS in remote_partition_enable() on subpartitions_cpus conflict

When a remote partition is created underneath an existing local partition
via a non-partition (PRS_MEMBER) intermediate cgroup, update_prstate() sees
parent->partition_root_state == PRS_MEMBER and calls
remote_partition_enable().

Commit 86888c7bd117 ("cgroup/cpuset: Add warnings to catch inconsistency
in exclusive CPUs") replaced the cpumask_intersects(tmp->new_cpus,
subpartitions_cpus) error check in remote_partition_enable() with
WARN_ON_ONCE(). As a result, remote_partition_enable() emits a warning
and proceeds to enable the remote partition on CPUs that are already
owned by the ancestor local partition in subpartitions_cpus.

This can be reproduced on Linux 7.3.0-rc3 with:

  mkdir -p /tmp/cg1
  mount -t cgroup2 none /tmp/cg1
  echo "+cpuset" > /tmp/cg1/cgroup.subtree_control

  mkdir /tmp/cg1/A
  echo 1 > /tmp/cg1/A/cpuset.cpus
  echo 1 > /tmp/cg1/A/cpuset.cpus.exclusive
  echo root > /tmp/cg1/A/cpuset.cpus.partition
  echo "+cpuset" > /tmp/cg1/A/cgroup.subtree_control

  mkdir /tmp/cg1/A/B
  echo 1 > /tmp/cg1/A/B/cpuset.cpus
  echo 1 > /tmp/cg1/A/B/cpuset.cpus.exclusive
  echo "+cpuset" > /tmp/cg1/A/B/cgroup.subtree_control

  mkdir /tmp/cg1/A/B/D
  echo 1 > /tmp/cg1/A/B/D/cpuset.cpus
  echo 1 > /tmp/cg1/A/B/D/cpuset.cpus.exclusive
  echo root > /tmp/cg1/A/B/D/cpuset.cpus.partition

which triggers:

  WARNING: kernel/cgroup/cpuset.c:1594 at remote_partition_enable+0x1c1/0x300

and leaves both /tmp/cg1/A and /tmp/cg1/A/B/D as active root partitions
claiming exclusive CPU 1.

Fix this by returning PERR_NOCPUS when tmp->new_cpus intersects
subpartitions_cpus in remote_partition_enable(), matching the error code
used by remote_cpus_update() for the same subpartitions_cpus conflict, and
add a regression test case to
tools/testing/selftests/cgroup/test_cpuset_prs.sh.

Tested in QEMU on Linux 7.3.0-rc3 using the reproducer above and
tools/testing/selftests/cgroup/test_cpuset_prs.sh.


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