CVE-2025-68807

block: fix race between wbt_enable_default and IO submission

State
Published
Severity
Not scored
Published
Jan 13, 2026
Updated
May 11, 2026
Reserved
Dec 24, 2025

Read the record on cve.org

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

block: fix race between wbt_enable_default and IO submission

When wbt_enable_default() is moved out of queue freezing in elevator_change(), it can cause the wbt inflight counter to become negative (-1), leading to hung tasks in the writeback path. Tasks get stuck in wbt_wait() because the counter is in an inconsistent state.

The issue occurs because wbt_enable_default() could race with IO submission, allowing the counter to be decremented before proper initialization. This manifests as:

rq_wait[0]: inflight: -1 has_waiters: True

rwb_enabled() checks the state, which can be updated exactly between wbt_wait() (rq_qos_throttle()) and wbt_track()(rq_qos_track()), then the inflight counter will become negative.

And results in hung task warnings like: task:kworker/u24:39 state:D stack:0 pid:14767 Call Trace: rq_qos_wait+0xb4/0x150 wbt_wait+0xa9/0x100 __rq_qos_throttle+0x24/0x40 blk_mq_submit_bio+0x672/0x7b0 ...

Fix this by:

1. Splitting wbt_enable_default() into: - __wbt_enable_default(): Returns true if wbt_init() should be called - wbt_enable_default(): Wrapper for existing callers (no init) - wbt_init_enable_default(): New function that checks and inits WBT

2. Using wbt_init_enable_default() in blk_register_queue() to ensure proper initialization during queue registration

3. Move wbt_init() out of wbt_enable_default() which is only for enabling disabled wbt from bfq and iocost, and wbt_init() isn't needed. Then the original lock warning can be avoided.

4. Removing the ELEVATOR_FLAG_ENABLE_WBT_ON_EXIT flag and its handling code since it's no longer needed

This ensures WBT is properly initialized before any IO can be submitted, preventing the counter from going negative.

Scores

The record has no CVSS score.

Weaknesses

The record names no weakness.

Affected Products

ProductVersions
LinuxLinux
  • 78c271344b6f64ce24c845e54903e09928cf2061 to before f55201fb3becff6a903fd29f4d1147cc7e91eb0cAffected
  • 78c271344b6f64ce24c845e54903e09928cf2061 to before 9869d3a6fed381f3b98404e26e1afc75d680cbf9Affected
LinuxLinux
  • 6.16Affected
  • before 6.16Not affected
  • 6.18.3 through 6.18.*Not affected
  • 6.19 and laterNot affected

References

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