Bug 2468221 (CVE-2026-43392) - CVE-2026-43392 kernel: sched_ext: Fix starvation of scx_enable() under fair-class saturation
Summary: CVE-2026-43392 kernel: sched_ext: Fix starvation of scx_enable() under fair-c...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-43392
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
unspecified
unspecified
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-05-08 15:05 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-05-08 21:44 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-05-08 15:05:31 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

sched_ext: Fix starvation of scx_enable() under fair-class saturation

During scx_enable(), the READY -> ENABLED task switching loop changes the
calling thread's sched_class from fair to ext. Since fair has higher
priority than ext, saturating fair-class workloads can indefinitely starve
the enable thread, hanging the system. This was introduced when the enable
path switched from preempt_disable() to scx_bypass() which doesn't protect
against fair-class starvation. Note that the original preempt_disable()
protection wasn't complete either - in partial switch modes, the calling
thread could still be starved after preempt_enable() as it may have been
switched to ext class.

Fix it by offloading the enable body to a dedicated system-wide RT
(SCHED_FIFO) kthread which cannot be starved by either fair or ext class
tasks. scx_enable() lazily creates the kthread on first use and passes the
ops pointer through a struct scx_enable_cmd containing the kthread_work,
then synchronously waits for completion.

The workfn runs on a different kthread from sch->helper (which runs
disable_work), so it can safely flush disable_work on the error path
without deadlock.


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