exec: Cleanup POSIX timers right after de_thread() (Linux Linux)

CVE-2026-98260
HIGH 7.8

At a glance

Source
NVD
EPSS
EPSS 0.18 % · percentile 8 ()
State
PUBLISHED
Published
Updated
Assigner
Linux
NVD status
Received

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: exec: Cleanup POSIX timers right after de_thread() A per-thread CPU timer holds a reference to the PID of the thread it is attached to and, while it is armed, its node is queued in that thread's posix_cputimers. The task is looked up by that PID. When a non-leader thread exec()s, de_thread() changes which task owns that PID. pid_task(timer->it.cpu.pid, PIDTYPE_PID) then returns NULL, but the node is still queued on tsk, which is alive. timer_lock_sighand() takes a failed lookup to mean that the node is already dequeued, so it has nothing to undo. begin_new_exec() calls posix_cpu_timers_exit(me) right after exec_task_namespaces() and that removes the leftover node, so the state normally stays invisible. But bprm->point_of_no_return is set before de_thread(), so if unshare_files(), set_mm_exe_file(), exec_mmap() or exec_task_namespaces() fails, the task dies before it gets there. exit_itimers() then frees the k_itimer while its node is still queued, and reaping tsk later erases that freed node from the rbtree. In short: the non-leader thread B the parent timer_create(CLOCK_THREAD_CPUTIME_ID) timer_settime() arm_timer() // the node is queued on B execve() de_thread(B) exchange_tids(B, leader) // B's PID now belongs to the leader release_task(leader) __exit_signal(leader) posix_cpu_timers_exit(leader) // cleans leader's queue, not B's __unhash_process(leader) // that PID has no task anymore exec_mmap() mmap_read_lock_killable(old_mm) kill(B, SIGKILL) // -EINTR get_signal() do_exit() exit_itimers() posix_timer_delete() posix_cpu_timer_del() posix_timer_unhash_and_free() // freed while still queued wait4() release_task(B) posix_cpu_timers_exit(B) cleanup_timerqueue() timerqueue_del() // use-after-free Move the POSIX timer cleanup right after de_thread() before any of the later failure conditions brings the task into do_exit(). [ tglx: Move the cleanup right after de_thread() ]

References

Scores

VersionScoreVectorScored by
CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.8CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HLinux
CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.8CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HNVD · 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Secondary)

European references

CERT-FR advisories

Affected products

ProductVersions
Linux · Linuxaffected 55e8c8eb2c7b6bf30e99423ccfe7ca032f498f59 < f6c93e8ecaaf12959b7ef6eb611351001db2ff5d ; affected 55e8c8eb2c7b6bf30e99423ccfe7ca032f498f59 < 6f1977cea3e85cd8ab55fb337d3e1725fe61d1ce ; affected 55e8c8eb2c7b6bf30e99423ccfe7ca032f498f59 < d9ae467e617ca29b825493a362bf0d75ad5f4ac3 ; affected 55e8c8eb2c7b6bf30e99423ccfe7ca032f498f59 < 75aa08b93c65766040f9ca99f41ac85ad22596b6 ; affected 55e8c8eb2c7b6bf30e99423ccfe7ca032f498f59 < d602877baf36c43c788a5f472c977e0be414029f ; affected 55e8c8eb2c7b6bf30e99423ccfe7ca032f498f59 < acb03d3881818581052924a9bbbe92b8741ed448
Linux · Linuxaffected 5.7 ; unaffected 0 < 5.7 ; unaffected 6.1.191 ≤ 6.1.* ; unaffected 6.6.158 ≤ 6.6.* ; unaffected 6.12.112 ≤ 6.12.* ; unaffected 6.18.54 ≤ 6.18.*

Sources

SourceLicence
CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5)CVE Program Terms of Use
EPSS (FIRST.org)FIRST — attribution requested
ENISA EUVDENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged
CERT-FR (ANSSI)Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0
NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feedsPublic domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD