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medium 5.5

CVE-2026-45895 json

quota: fix livelock between quotactl and freeze_super

published 5mo ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2026-32361

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 5%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

quota: fix livelock between quotactl and freeze_super

When a filesystem is frozen, quotactl_block() enters a retry loop waiting for the filesystem to thaw. It acquires s_umount, checks the freeze state, drops s_umount and uses sb_start_write() - sb_end_write() pair to wait for the unfreeze.

However, this retry loop can trigger a livelock issue, specifically on kernels with preemption disabled.

The mechanism is as follows: 1. freeze_super() sets SB_FREEZE_WRITE and calls sb_wait_write(). 2. sb_wait_write() calls percpu_down_write(), which initiates synchronize_rcu(). 3. Simultaneously, quotactl_block() spins in its retry loop, immediately executing the sb_start_write() - sb_end_write() pair. 4. Because the kernel is non-preemptible and the loop contains no scheduling points, quotactl_block() never yields the CPU. This prevents that CPU from reaching an RCU quiescent state. 5. synchronize_rcu() in the freezer thread waits indefinitely for the quotactl_block() CPU to report a quiescent state. 6. quotactl_block() spins indefinitely waiting for the freezer to advance, which it cannot do as it is blocked on the RCU sync.

This results in a hang of the freezer process and 100% CPU usage by the quota process.

While this can occur intermittently on multi-core systems, it is reliably reproducing on a node with the following script, running both the freezer and the quota toggle on the same CPU:

# mkfs.ext4 -O quota /dev/sda 2g && mkdir a_mount # mount /dev/sda -o quota,usrquota,grpquota a_mount # taskset -c 3 bash -c "while true; do xfs_freeze -f a_mount; \ xfs_freeze -u a_mount; done" & # taskset -c 3 bash -c "while true; do quotaon a_mount; \ quotaoff a_mount; done" &

Adding cond_resched() to the retry loop fixes the issue. It acts as an RCU quiescent state, allowing synchronize_rcu() in percpu_down_write() to complete.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.6.128, 6.12.75, 6.18.14, 6.19.4, 7.0
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.85-1
  • linux Debian 14 6.18.14-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-45895

  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-134.134
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1060.63
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1063.69
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1058.64
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1060.61
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1063.71
  • linux-gkeop Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1045.48
  • linux-raspi Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1060.64

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-45895

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-default SLES 16.0, SLE High Availability Extension 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2 +1 more 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.2 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-64kb SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-source SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-default-base SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1.160000.2.19
  • kernel-syms SLES 16.0, Linux Micro Extras 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-azure SLES 16.0, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-obs-qa SLES 16.0, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:23237-1SUSE-SU-2026:23068-1SUSE-SU-2026:23221-1SUSE-SU-2026:23231-1SUSE-SU-2026:23066-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21555-1

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-45895 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: quota: fix livelock between quotactl and freeze_super

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.16% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 5% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Technology feeds

References

Sources

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