In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sched/deadline: Fix task_struct reference leak During the execution of the following stress test with linux-rt: stress-ng --cyclic 30 --timeout 30 --minimize --quiet kmemleak frequently reported a memory leak concerning the task_struct: unreferenced object 0xffff8881305b8000 (size 16136): comm "stress-ng", pid 614, jiffies 4294883961 (age 286.412s) object hex dump (first 32 bytes): 02 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .@.............. 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ debug hex dump (first 16 bytes): 53 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 S............... backtrace: [<00000000046b6790>] dup_task_struct+0x30/0x540 [<00000000c5ca0f0b>] copy_process+0x3d9/0x50e0 [<00000000ced59777>] kernel_clone+0xb0/0x770 [<00000000a50befdc>] __do_sys_clone+0xb6/0xf0 [<000000001dbf2008>] do_syscall_64+0x5d/0xf0 [<00000000552900ff>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6e/0x76 The issue occurs in start_dl_timer(), which increments the task_struct reference count and sets a timer. The timer callback, dl_task_timer, is supposed to decrement the reference count upon expiration. However, if enqueue_task_dl() is called before the timer expires and cancels it, the reference count is not decremented, leading to the leak. This patch fixes the reference leak by ensuring the task_struct reference count is properly decremented when the timer is canceled.
Fix
Patch, vendor advisory and mitigation references on NVD 4
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7a54d31face626f62de415ebe77b43f76c3ffaf4 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b58652db66c910c2245f5bee7deca41c12d707b9 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7a54d31face626f62de415ebe77b43f76c3ffaf4 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b58652db66c910c2245f5bee7deca41c12d707b9 Patch
Every line above is quoted from NVD, CISA, Microsoft, the vendor's own advisory or DISA; nothing is generated.
Change history 5
- CwesCWE-401NVD modified 2026-10-21 13:17
- Cpes+8 CPE criteria (now 8)NVD modified 2026-10-21 13:17
- StatusPublished → ModifiedNVD modified 2026-10-21 13:17
- CVSS5.5 (v3.1, CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)NVD modified 2026-10-21 13:17
- First seenunscored · linuxNVD modified 2026-10-21 12:34
Affected (CPE criteria) 8
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.10:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.10:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.10:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.10:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.10:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.10:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:*cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.10:rc7:*:*:*:*:*:*
References 5
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7a54d31face626f62de415ebe77b43f76c3ffaf4 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b58652db66c910c2245f5bee7deca41c12d707b9 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f8005214946fd1d9fefdeff19c6ce46d60de2cef
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7a54d31face626f62de415ebe77b43f76c3ffaf4 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b58652db66c910c2245f5bee7deca41c12d707b9 Patch