In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cgroup/cpuset: Handle cpu hotplug race in guarantee_active_cpus() With commit 2125c0034c5d ("cgroup/cpuset: Make cpuset hotplug processing synchronous"), the cpuset hotplug operation becomes synchronous. That commit also removes the code that handles race between cpuset_hotplug_work and cpu hotplug notifier with the assumption that race is now gone. Later commit 7a0aabd9ce69 ("cgroup/cpuset: Always use cpu_active_mask") updates the cpuset code to always use cpu_active_mask instead of cpu_online_mask in some places including guarantee_online_cpus() which is renamed to guarantee_active_cpus() in that commit. In the case of CPU offline operation, cpu_active_mask is updated first in sched_cpu_deactivate() to remove the offline CPU before cpuset_handle_hotplug() is called to update the effective_cpus of the affected cpusets. The cpu_online_mask is updated after that near the end of the offline operation to remove the offline CPU. As a result, the race comes back and the top cpuset may not have any active CPU leading to NULL pointer dereference during the race window when guarantee_active_cpus() is called after cpu_active_mask is updated to remove the CPU to be torn down but before cpuset_handle_hotplug() is able to properly update the effective_cpus of the top cpuset. Fix this by adding back the NULL cs check to avoid this problem.
History

Fri, 23 Oct 2026 22:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Linux linux
Vendors & Products Linux linux

Fri, 23 Oct 2026 16:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-362
CWE-476

Fri, 23 Oct 2026 12:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cgroup/cpuset: Handle cpu hotplug race in guarantee_active_cpus() With commit 2125c0034c5d ("cgroup/cpuset: Make cpuset hotplug processing synchronous"), the cpuset hotplug operation becomes synchronous. That commit also removes the code that handles race between cpuset_hotplug_work and cpu hotplug notifier with the assumption that race is now gone. Later commit 7a0aabd9ce69 ("cgroup/cpuset: Always use cpu_active_mask") updates the cpuset code to always use cpu_active_mask instead of cpu_online_mask in some places including guarantee_online_cpus() which is renamed to guarantee_active_cpus() in that commit. In the case of CPU offline operation, cpu_active_mask is updated first in sched_cpu_deactivate() to remove the offline CPU before cpuset_handle_hotplug() is called to update the effective_cpus of the affected cpusets. The cpu_online_mask is updated after that near the end of the offline operation to remove the offline CPU. As a result, the race comes back and the top cpuset may not have any active CPU leading to NULL pointer dereference during the race window when guarantee_active_cpus() is called after cpu_active_mask is updated to remove the CPU to be torn down but before cpuset_handle_hotplug() is able to properly update the effective_cpus of the top cpuset. Fix this by adding back the NULL cs check to avoid this problem.
Title cgroup/cpuset: Handle cpu hotplug race in guarantee_active_cpus()
First Time appeared Linux
Linux linux Kernel
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Linux
Linux linux Kernel
References

cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Linux

Published: 2026-10-23T12:23:08.458Z

Updated: 2026-10-23T12:23:08.458Z

Reserved: 2026-09-25T10:25:14.389Z

Link: CVE-2026-99065

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-10-23T13:17:30.367

Modified: 2026-10-23T13:17:30.367

Link: CVE-2026-99065

cve-icon Redhat

No data.