CVE-2026-99103 json
workqueue: Fix unbound pool lifetime for pending pwqs
published 14d ago modified 12d ago also EUVD-2026-112003
- cvss
- —
- not scored
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 0.2%
- EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 6%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
workqueue: Fix unbound pool lifetime for pending pwqs
KASAN reports a use-after-free of an unbound worker_pool in node_activate_pending_pwq():
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in _raw_spin_trylock+0x6d/0x120 Read of size 4 at addr ffff8880089ce000 by task kworker/u22:0/318
CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 318 Comm: kworker/u22:0 Not tainted 7.2.0 #1 PREEMPT(lazy) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.15.0-1 04/01/2014 Workqueue: 0x0 (flush-8:0) Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x53/0x70 print_report+0xce/0x610 kasan_report+0xce/0x100 _raw_spin_trylock+0x6d/0x120 pwq_dec_nr_in_flight+0x4b4/0xcb0 process_one_work+0x921/0x11a0 worker_thread+0x4d0/0xd20 kthread+0x2de/0x3c0 ret_from_fork+0x3aa/0x620 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 </TASK>
Allocated by task 311: alloc_pwq+0x439/0xca0 apply_wqattrs_prepare+0x75e/0xd10 apply_workqueue_attrs_locked+0x44/0xa0 wq_nice_store+0x350/0x450
Freed by task 0: kfree+0x127/0x3b0 rcu_core+0x523/0x1780 handle_softirqs+0x1b3/0x610
Last potentially related work creation: put_unbound_pool+0x3f3/0x7d0 pwq_release_workfn+0x494/0x8e0 kthread_worker_fn+0x1ff/0x790
Canceling the last inactive work skips pwq_dec_nr_active(), so an empty pwq can remain on pending_pwqs when its refcnt reaches zero. pwq_release_workfn() currently puts the pool before removing that pwq. If this drops the last pool reference, the pool can be RCU-freed while the pwq remains reachable, and node_activate_pending_pwq() may trylock the freed pool->lock.
Remove the pwq from pending_pwqs before putting the pool.
Patch / fix
- Linux Linux 6.6.25, 6.8, 6.8.4, 7.3
- linux Debian 13 6.12.115-2
- linux Debian 14 7.2.13-1
debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-99103
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/6741dd3fd38e47c08bc39d11ef5fa141fa6d0441 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/9f5d5aef3072a33c6f9bfb954bb0cba1c2541849 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/390b9542fe670b8936738140ef9f349df6adeab6 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/f320b85c90fe5fc9d4d06badd450518323a94a7f commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/3d2ef2b9f4c084ab498494d26495a82f7e15407b commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/cf9c8aaea0d47410df8708bec195889f3a85cd3c commit
Is CVE-2026-99103 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.
Check with FencerVendor advisories
What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.
red hat product security vex CVE-2026-99103 updated cvss 4.7
kernel: workqueue: Fix unbound pool lifetime for pending pwqs
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 moreaffected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +82 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
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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 kernel-rt, kernel-rt-selftests-internal Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8not 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
0.17% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 6% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-11).
Affected products
- Linux Linux
Classification
- Technology feeds
References
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/6741dd3fd38e47c08bc39d11ef5fa141fa6d0441
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/9f5d5aef3072a33c6f9bfb954bb0cba1c2541849
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/390b9542fe670b8936738140ef9f349df6adeab6
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/f320b85c90fe5fc9d4d06badd450518323a94a7f
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/3d2ef2b9f4c084ab498494d26495a82f7e15407b
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/cf9c8aaea0d47410df8708bec195889f3a85cd3c
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2026-99103
- NVD CVE-2026-99103
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