CVE-2026-90058

net/sched: bound qdisc_pkt_len to prevent qdisc soft lockup

State
Published
Severity
Not scored
Published
Sep 17, 2026
Updated
Oct 19, 2026
Reserved
Sep 11, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

Description

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

net/sched: bound qdisc_pkt_len to prevent qdisc soft lockup

qdisc_get_stab() accepts a user-supplied size table, and __qdisc_calculate_pkt_len() amplifies qdisc_pkt_len() through the overhead, the size-table data (u16), and size_log (up to STAB_SIZE_LOG_MAX). A crafted stab can therefore set qdisc_pkt_len() to ~1 GiB for an ordinary skb. Per-flow deficit schedulers such as DRR and ETS replenish one quantum per loop iteration; with a tiny quantum (1) they spin billions of times under the qdisc lock, producing a soft lockup / RCU stall as illustrated by vega@nebusec.ai.

Cap the final qdisc_pkt_len() to QDISC_PKT_LEN_MAX so the size-table amplification cannot drive deficit schedulers into an unbounded loop. A legitimate size table (e.g. qfq's overhead 999999999, which is handled by dropping) is still accepted.

Introduce cap QDISC_PKT_LEN_MAX (1 << 20) = 1 MiB which is well above any legitimate single-skb wire length: the largest current skb->len is GSO_MAX_SIZE (524280), and an ATM-style size table (53/48 cell tax) amplifies that to ~578 KB, both comfortably below 1 MiB. At the same time, 1 MiB bounds the deficit refill loop to ~1M iterations per packet with quantum=1, which completes in a few milliseconds well under the demonstrated softlockup threshold (~10^9 iterations).

Conditions to recreate the bug: - CONFIG_NET_SCHED=y, CONFIG_NET_SCH_DRR=y (or CONFIG_NET_SCH_ETS=y). - Attach a DRR (or ETS) root qdisc with a crafted TCA_STAB that amplifies qdisc_pkt_len to ~1 GiB (e.g. size_log=15, data=[32768]). - Add a class with a tiny quantum of 1 and send one small packet; the deficit loop spins billions of times under the qdisc lock and trips the softlockup detector (panic with kernel.softlockup_panic=1). - Reachable as root or from an unprivileged user in a fresh user+net namespace (unshare -Urn) with namespace-local CAP_NET_ADMIN.

Scores

The record has no CVSS score.

Weaknesses

The record names no weakness.

Affected Products

ProductVersions
LinuxLinux
  • 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to before 4f0f4b09a95ef602fbdae948326beadd9c20eab3Affected
  • 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to before 0bc5a6280a132a2170c6fa742436e01b635f02deAffected
  • 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to before 448c34421b38ec7c93a0060a885218ca319d382bAffected
  • 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to before 82fdbf49b9f7528c82bf608cfa9710e5f81a198cAffected
  • 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to before 6e78792d8ce1fa3561713860ee8086901dde4f99Affected
  • 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to before 1a5c26e586481bc82abc19ac92c3d9f10518f525Affected
  • 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to before 16d21a27df3f50b7251c9388fc5a7ab22703b469Affected
  • 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to before 8f735d64382dcf162f4276d6699d03ad2f859c0bAffected
LinuxLinux
  • 2.6.12Affected
  • before 2.6.12Not affected
  • 5.10.270 through 5.10.*Not affected
  • 5.15.221 through 5.15.*Not affected
  • 6.1.188 through 6.1.*Not affected
  • 6.6.157 through 6.6.*Not affected
  • 6.12.110 through 6.12.*Not affected
  • 6.18.52 through 6.18.*Not affected
  • 7.2.6 through 7.2.*Not affected
  • 7.3 and laterNot affected

References

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