CVE-2026-43392

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

State
Published
Severity
Not scored
Published
May 8, 2026
Updated
May 11, 2026
Reserved
May 1, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

Description

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.

Scores

The record has no CVSS score.

Weaknesses

The record names no weakness.

Affected Products

ProductVersions
LinuxLinux
  • 8c2090c504e998c8f34ec870bae71dafcc96a6e0 to before e0b14bf06393be137d3efb6a3b7cd5b4b9810a6bAffected
  • 8c2090c504e998c8f34ec870bae71dafcc96a6e0 to before c44198f25fdfecc0ec0fe366bf8a47fe17d8e229Affected
  • 8c2090c504e998c8f34ec870bae71dafcc96a6e0 to before 05ab9ec5dc24f234e0a2fecf3e6ff937c68f7d81Affected
  • 8c2090c504e998c8f34ec870bae71dafcc96a6e0 to before b06ccbabe2506fd70b9167a644978b049150224aAffected
LinuxLinux
  • 6.12Affected
  • before 6.12Not affected
  • 6.12.78 through 6.12.*Not affected
  • 6.18.20 through 6.18.*Not affected
  • 6.19.9 through 6.19.*Not affected
  • 7.0 and laterNot affected

References

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