CVE-2026-98536

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: writeback: report a Tasks-RCU quiescent state per cgwb drain pass cleanup_offline_cgwbs_workfn() drains a dying cgwb by calling cleanup_offline_cgwb() until it returns false, with a cond_resched() between passes. On a CONFIG_PREEMPTION kernel that cond_resched() does nothing: _cond_resched() is a plain "return 0", and under PREEMPT_DYNAMIC the full and lazy modes disable it. Since commit 7dadeaa6e851 ("sched: Further restrict the preemption modes") those are the only two models on the architectures with PREEMPT_LAZY support, arm64 and x86 among them, so the drain loop never reports a Tasks-RCU quiescent state. A worker draining a cgwb with millions of attached inodes runs for minutes. On a 6.18 arm64 host in lazy mode the cgwb worker drained one dying cgroup's writeback domain for over 11 minutes. A BPF program unlink (bpf_trampoline_unlink_prog -> bpf_trampoline_update -> unregister_ftrace_direct -> ftrace_shutdown -> synchronize_rcu_tasks()) waited on that grace period while holding the trampoline mutex, 42 tasks queued behind it in D state, and the hung task detector fired at 614 s and panicked the host. Any BPF or ftrace detach during a long drain inherits the drain's length. Fix this by calling cond_resched_tasks_rcu_qs() so we do not stall out anybody who calls sycnrhonize_rcu_tasks(). We put this in a do { } while loop because if we have many small cgroups cleanup_offline_cgwb() will return false and we will never call cond_resched_tasks_rcu_qs(), creating the same problem.

Package Linux Kernel
Published 2026-10-18
Last modified 2026-10-18
Patch available
Yes

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 5.14 and later are affected. Fixed in 5.15.222, 6.1.189, 6.6.158, 6.12.112, 6.18.55, 7.2.9, 7.3 and their respective stable series.

Affected from
≥ 5.14
Fixed in
✓ 5.15.222 5.15.x ✓ 6.1.189 6.1.x ✓ 6.6.158 6.6.x ✓ 6.12.112 6.12.x ✓ 6.18.55 6.18.x ✓ 7.2.9 7.2.x ✓ 7.3

Frequently asked questions

  • What is CVE-2026-98536?

    CVE-2026-98536 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability . It affects Linux kernel versions from 5.14 onward and has been patched in 5.15.222, 6.1.189, 6.6.158 and others. CVE-2026-98536 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

  • Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-98536?

    Yes. CVE-2026-98536 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.15.222, 6.1.189, 6.6.158 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 5.14 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

  • Is CVE-2026-98536 actively exploited?

    No. CVE-2026-98536 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.