CVE-2026-64378

Status: UPDATED  |  Advisory ID: CVE-2026-64378

Key Details

Affected Products, Subsystems & Sectors

What to Know

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

writeback: fix race between cgroup_writeback_umount() and inode_switch_wbs()

When a container exits, the following BUG_ON() is occasionally triggered:

==================================================================

VFS: Busy inodes after unmount of sdb (ext4)

------------[ cut here ]------------

kernel BUG at fs/super.c:695!

CPU: 3 PID: 6 Comm: containerd-shim Tainted: G OE K 6.6 #1

pstate: 63400009 (nZCv daif +PAN -UAO +TCO +DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)

pc : generic_shutdown_super+0xf0/0x100

lr : generic_shutdown_super+0xf0/0x100

Call trace:

generic_shutdown_super+0xf0/0x100

kill_block_super+0x20/0x48

ext4_kill_sb+0x28/0x60

deactivate_locked_super+0x54/0x130

deactivate_super+0x84/0xa0

cleanup_mnt+0xa4/0x140

__cleanup_mnt+0x18/0x28

task_work_run+0x78/0xe0

do_notify_resume+0x204/0x240

==================================================================

The root cause is a race between cgroup_writeback_umount() and

inode_switch_wbs()/cleanup_offline_cgwb(). There is a window between

inode_prepare_wbs_switch() returning true and the subsequent

wb_queue_isw() call. Following is the process that triggers the issue:

CPU A (umount) | CPU B (writeback)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

inode_switch_wbs/cleanup_offline_cgwb

atomic_inc(&isw_nr_in_flight)

inode_prepare_wbs_switch

-> passes SB_ACTIVE check

__iget(inode)

generic_shutdown_super

sb->s_flags &= ~SB_ACTIVE

cgroup_writeback_umount(sb)

smp_mb()

atomic_read(&isw_nr_in_flight)

rcu_barrier()

-> no pending RCU callbacks

flush_workqueue(isw_wq)

-> nothing queued, returns

evict_inodes(sb)

-> Inode skipped as isw still holds a ref.

sop->put_super(sb)

/* destroys percpu counters */

-> VFS: Busy inodes after unmount!

wb_queue_isw()

queue_work(isw_wq, ...)

/* later in work function */

inode_switch_wbs_work_fn

process_inode_switch_wbs

iput() -> evict

percpu_counter_dec() // UAF!

Fix this by extending the RCU read-side critical section in

inode_switch_wbs() and cleanup_offline_cgwb() to cover from

inode_prepare_wbs_switch() through wb_queue_isw(). Since there is

no sleep in this window, rcu_read_lock() can be used. Then add a

synchronize_rcu() in cgroup_writeback_umount() before the existing

rcu_barrier(), so that all in-flight switchers that have passed the

SB_ACTIVE check have completed queue_work() before flush_workqueue()

is called.

The existing rcu_barrier() is intentionally retained so this fix can

be backported unchanged to stable kernels (5.10.y, 6.6.y, ...) that

still queue switches via queue_rcu_work(). It is a no-op on current

mainline (since commit e1b849cfa6b6 ("writeback: Avoid contention on

wb->list_lock when switching inodes")) and is removed in a follow-up

patch. (NVD)

What to Do

Monitor Linux's web page for any future patch releases.

References