CVE-2026-43392

About vulnerability

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sched_ext: Fix starvation of scx_enable() under fair-class saturation During scx_enable(), the READY -> ENABLED task switching loop changes the calling thread’s sched_class from fair to ext. Since fair has higher priority than ext, saturating fair-class workloads can indefinitely starve the enable thread, hanging the system. This was introduced when the enable path switched from preempt_disable() to scx_bypass() which doesn’t protect against fair-class starvation. Note that the original preempt_disable() protection wasn’t complete either - in partial switch modes, the calling thread could still be starved after preempt_enable() as it may have been switched to ext class. Fix it by offloading the enable body to a dedicated system-wide RT (SCHED_FIFO) kthread which cannot be starved by either fair or ext class tasks. scx_enable() lazily creates the kthread on first use and passes the ops pointer through a struct scx_enable_cmd containing the kthread_work, then synchronously waits for completion. The workfn runs on a different kthread from sch->helper (which runs disable_work), so it can safely flush disable_work on the error path without deadlock. A flaw was found in the sched_ext component of the Linux kernel. This vulnerability allows a local attacker to cause a system hang by exploiting an issue in the scx_enable() function. The function’s task switching loop can lead to indefinite starvation of the enable thread when higher-priority fair-class workloads saturate the system. This results in a Denial of Service (DoS), making the system unresponsive.

Live-patch status from KernelCare for each operating system.