Bug 2555204 (CVE-2026-98866) - CVE-2026-98866 kernel: sched/cache: Introduce task_struct->sched_cache_grp to fix UAF
Summary: CVE-2026-98866 kernel: sched/cache: Introduce task_struct->sched_cache_grp to...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-98866
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: 2026-10-18 16:01 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-10-24 07:19 UTC (History)
17 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-18 16:01:45 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

sched/cache: Introduce task_struct->sched_cache_grp to fix UAF

Add a sched_cache_grp pointer to task_struct so that scheduler code
can access the cache group directly via the task, without going
through mm->sched_cache_grp.  This decouples the scheduler's hot-path
accesses from the mm_struct.

Each task holds its own refcount on the sched_cache_group, separate
from the reference held by its mm_struct.  The reference is acquired
in copy_mm() (fork) and exec_mmap() (exec), and released in exit_mm().
This fixes the use-after-free when account_mm_sched() reaches the group
through a task whose mm is being switched, as reported by Hyunwoo:

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

Convert all scheduler code in fair.c and exit.c to use
p->sched_cache_grp instead of p->mm->sched_cache_grp.

Keep the fork/exec/exit reference management out of the generic mm
paths: add sched_cache_fork(), sched_cache_fork_cleanup(),
sched_cache_exec_mmap() and sched_cache_exit_mm() in
kernel/sched/cache_sched.c (with empty stubs for !CONFIG_SCHED_CACHE),
so fs/exec.c, kernel/fork.c and kernel/exit.c each call one helper
instead of open-coding the refcounting under #ifdef.  Also add
sched_cache_group_get() and task_cache_group_get().


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