Linux Kernel up to 6.12.81/6.18.21/6.19.11 kernel/sched/ext.c mark_direct_dispatch state issue

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.81/6.18.21/6.19.11. This affects the function mark_direct_dispatch of the file kernel/sched/ext.c. This manipulation causes state issue. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-31733. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.81/6.18.21/6.19.11. It has been declared as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function mark_direct_dispatch of the file kernel/sched/ext.c. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a state issue vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-371. The impact remains unknown. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sched_ext: Fix stale direct dispatch state in ddsp_dsq_id @p->scx.ddsp_dsq_id can be left set (non-SCX_DSQ_INVALID) triggering a spurious warning in mark_direct_dispatch() when the next wakeup's ops.select_cpu() calls scx_bpf_dsq_insert(), such as: WARNING: kernel/sched/ext.c:1273 at scx_dsq_insert_commit+0xcd/0x140 The root cause is that ddsp_dsq_id was only cleared in dispatch_enqueue(), which is not reached in all paths that consume or cancel a direct dispatch verdict. Fix it by clearing it at the right places: - direct_dispatch(): cache the direct dispatch state in local variables and clear it before dispatch_enqueue() on the synchronous path. For the deferred path, the direct dispatch state must remain set until process_ddsp_deferred_locals() consumes them. - process_ddsp_deferred_locals(): cache the dispatch state in local variables and clear it before calling dispatch_to_local_dsq(), which may migrate the task to another rq. - do_enqueue_task(): clear the dispatch state on the enqueue path (local/global/bypass fallbacks), where the direct dispatch verdict is ignored. - dequeue_task_scx(): clear the dispatch state after dispatch_dequeue() to handle both the deferred dispatch cancellation and the holding_cpu race, covering all cases where a pending direct dispatch is cancelled. - scx_disable_task(): clear the direct dispatch state when transitioning a task out of the current scheduler. Waking tasks may have had the direct dispatch state set by the outgoing scheduler's ops.select_cpu() and then been queued on a wake_list via ttwu_queue_wakelist(), when SCX_OPS_ALLOW_QUEUED_WAKEUP is set. Such tasks are not on the runqueue and are not iterated by scx_bypass(), so their direct dispatch state won't be cleared. Without this clear, any subsequent SCX scheduler that tries to direct dispatch the task will trigger the WARN_ON_ONCE() in mark_direct_dispatch().

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-31733 since 03/09/2026. The exploitation appears to be difficult. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 07/01/2026).

Upgrading to version 6.12.82, 6.18.22 or 6.19.12 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch ca685511f7afd42cdcbb0feea42e5d332d384251/5e7b2cc8fae9ec2a5bc53311191d2faaff75a4b5/7ea601daa0153e19cd1c6e6b300348c70c05fe77/7e0ffb72de8aa3b25989c2d980e81b829c577010 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-1346). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Microsoft Azure Linux
• Red Hat OpenShift

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
• 6.12.6
• 6.12.7
• 6.12.8
• 6.12.9
• 6.12.10
• 6.12.11
• 6.12.12
• 6.12.13
• 6.12.14
• 6.12.15
• 6.12.16
• 6.12.17
• 6.12.18
• 6.12.19
• 6.12.20
• 6.12.21
• 6.12.22
• 6.12.23
• 6.12.24
• 6.12.25
• 6.12.26
• 6.12.27
• 6.12.28
• 6.12.29
• 6.12.30
• 6.12.31
• 6.12.32
• 6.12.33
• 6.12.34
• 6.12.35
• 6.12.36
• 6.12.37
• 6.12.38
• 6.12.39
• 6.12.40
• 6.12.41
• 6.12.42
• 6.12.43
• 6.12.44
• 6.12.45
• 6.12.46
• 6.12.47
• 6.12.48
• 6.12.49
• 6.12.50
• 6.12.51
• 6.12.52
• 6.12.53
• 6.12.54
• 6.12.55
• 6.12.56
• 6.12.57
• 6.12.58
• 6.12.59
• 6.12.60
• 6.12.61
• 6.12.62
• 6.12.63
• 6.12.64
• 6.12.65
• 6.12.66
• 6.12.67
• 6.12.68
• 6.12.69
• 6.12.70
• 6.12.71
• 6.12.72
• 6.12.73
• 6.12.74
• 6.12.75
• 6.12.76
• 6.12.77
• 6.12.78
• 6.12.79
• 6.12.80
• 6.12.81
• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8
• 6.18.9
• 6.18.10
• 6.18.11
• 6.18.12
• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
• 6.18.15
• 6.18.16
• 6.18.17
• 6.18.18
• 6.18.19
• 6.18.20
• 6.18.21
• 6.19.0
• 6.19.1
• 6.19.2
• 6.19.3
• 6.19.4
• 6.19.5
• 6.19.6
• 6.19.7
• 6.19.8
• 6.19.9
• 6.19.10
• 6.19.11

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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Entryinfo

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