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CVE-2026-98644

Linux: bpf: Avoid soft lockup in __htab_map_lookup_and_delete_batch()

Linux LinuxOperating systems
CVSS
NoneNot scored
ExploitationNo known exploitationNot in CISA KEV, which does not prove it is unexploitedCISA KEV
Exploit odds (EPSS)0.21%Chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 10% of CVEs. Scored 23 Oct 2026FIRST EPSS
Fixed in5c8b1869cb99a32a962388848cd19604fb41263eAlso 77a3b52b4455e6377e549539e757bc55eedefb51, 44f9bcb5ab2b268bc763ed3ebec83308b4972936 and 2 moreCVE List
Published18 Oct 2026Updated 19 Oct 2026CVE List

What fixes it

  • 5c8b1869cb99a32a962388848cd19604fb41263eLinuxCVE List
  • 77a3b52b4455e6377e549539e757bc55eedefb51LinuxCVE List
  • 44f9bcb5ab2b268bc763ed3ebec83308b4972936LinuxCVE List
  • 4e48fe9b1c77966bede0a73feb3059d7595f642dLinuxCVE List
  • 85136bf22404474a815fc0ed26ec0d1cbc1bc3f9LinuxCVE List

A fixed version on one release line is not the upgrade target for every line. Check your exact version and any vendor backports.

Description

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

bpf: Avoid soft lockup in __htab_map_lookup_and_delete_batch()

__htab_map_lookup_and_delete_batch() has no rescheduling point. The batch count bounds how many entries are copied out, not how many buckets are visited, so one BPF_MAP_LOOKUP_BATCH call can walk the map end to end. The empty-bucket fast path is worse: it stays inside a single rcu_read_lock() / bpf_disable_instrumentation() section for any run of consecutive empty buckets.

That holds up on small maps, but it falls apart at scale. On a 144-CPU arm64 host running a CONFIG_PREEMPT_NONE kernel, periodic BPF_MAP_LOOKUP_BATCH calls against an LRU hash map with 16,777,216 buckets held a CPU inside the batch op for 77+ seconds and triggered the soft lockup watchdog.

Commit 75134f16e7dd ("bpf: Add schedule points in batch ops") fixed this same problem in the generic batch ops, but not in this htab-native path, which every htab-based hash map variant uses for its lookup[_and_delete] batch ops.

Complete that fix here. Leave the critical section after 64 consecutive empty buckets, call cond_resched_tasks_rcu_qs(), and resume at the saved bucket cursor. No locks are held at that point, and resuming from the cursor is already the function's behavior for non-empty buckets. Add the same call to the per-bucket loop after copy_to_user(), where every lock has been dropped. cond_resched_rcu() is not enough here: sleeping with bpf_prog_active elevated makes tracing programs on that CPU silently skip their invocations.

Plain cond_resched() is not enough either. It is a no-op under PREEMPT and PREEMPT_LAZY, the only models arm64 and x86 have offered since commit 7dadeaa6e851 ("sched: Further restrict the preemption modes"). It is also never a Tasks RCU quiescent state, in any model: the reschedule counts as a preemption. The walking task stays a holdout and stalls every synchronize_rcu_tasks() caller, ftrace and BPF trampoline teardown included, until the syscall returns [1]. cond_resched_tasks_rcu_qs() is the usual tool for that [2]. It reports the quiescent state at each yield and still reschedules as cond_resched() does on PREEMPT_NONE and PREEMPT_VOLUNTARY kernels.

Text from CVE List

Affected versions 16

  • Linuxaffected: 057996380a42bb64ccc04383cfa9c0ace4ea11f0 before 5c8b1869cb99a32a962388848cd19604fb41263eCVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 057996380a42bb64ccc04383cfa9c0ace4ea11f0 before ca5bd55fc508fbb5c08c62206d02237a5b6fc7e8CVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 057996380a42bb64ccc04383cfa9c0ace4ea11f0 before 77a3b52b4455e6377e549539e757bc55eedefb51CVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 057996380a42bb64ccc04383cfa9c0ace4ea11f0 before f0c09de08ec077098b7e1563f2285f1c136cd816CVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 057996380a42bb64ccc04383cfa9c0ace4ea11f0 before 44f9bcb5ab2b268bc763ed3ebec83308b4972936CVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 057996380a42bb64ccc04383cfa9c0ace4ea11f0 before 4e48fe9b1c77966bede0a73feb3059d7595f642dCVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 057996380a42bb64ccc04383cfa9c0ace4ea11f0 before 85136bf22404474a815fc0ed26ec0d1cbc1bc3f9CVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 5.6CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: all versions before 5.6CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 5.15.222 through 5.15.*CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 6.1.189 through 6.1.*CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 6.6.158 through 6.6.*CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 6.12.112 through 6.12.*CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 6.18.55 through 6.18.*CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 7.2.9 through 7.2.*CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 7.3CVE List

References 7