Linux Kernel up to 6.19.8 rcu_tasks_wait_gp infinite loop

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability categorized as critical has been discovered in Linux Kernel up to 6.19.8. This affects the function rcu_tasks_wait_gp. Executing a manipulation can lead to infinite loop. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2026-43385. There is no available exploit. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.19.8. This vulnerability affects the function rcu_tasks_wait_gp. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a infinite loop vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-835. The product contains an iteration or loop with an exit condition that cannot be reached, i.e., an infinite loop. As an impact it is known to affect availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: Fix rcu_tasks stall in threaded busypoll I was debugging a NIC driver when I noticed that when I enable threaded busypoll, bpftrace hangs when starting up. dmesg showed: rcu_tasks_wait_gp: rcu_tasks grace period number 85 (since boot) is 10658 jiffies old. rcu_tasks_wait_gp: rcu_tasks grace period number 85 (since boot) is 40793 jiffies old. rcu_tasks_wait_gp: rcu_tasks grace period number 85 (since boot) is 131273 jiffies old. rcu_tasks_wait_gp: rcu_tasks grace period number 85 (since boot) is 402058 jiffies old. INFO: rcu_tasks detected stalls on tasks: 00000000769f52cd: .N nvcsw: 2/2 holdout: 1 idle_cpu: -1/64 task:napi/eth2-8265 state:R running task stack:0 pid:48300 tgid:48300 ppid:2 task_flags:0x208040 flags:0x00004000 Call Trace: <TASK> ? napi_threaded_poll_loop+0x27c/0x2c0 ? __pfx_napi_threaded_poll+0x10/0x10 ? napi_threaded_poll+0x26/0x80 ? kthread+0xfa/0x240 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ? ret_from_fork+0x31/0x50 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ? ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 </TASK> The cause is that in threaded busypoll, the main loop is in napi_threaded_poll rather than napi_threaded_poll_loop, where the latter rarely iterates more than once within its loop. For rcu_softirq_qs_periodic inside napi_threaded_poll_loop to report its qs state, the last_qs must be 100ms behind, and this can't happen because napi_threaded_poll_loop rarely iterates in threaded busypoll, and each time napi_threaded_poll_loop is called last_qs is reset to latest jiffies. This patch changes so that in threaded busypoll, last_qs is saved in the outer napi_threaded_poll, and whether busy_poll_last_qs is NULL indicates whether napi_threaded_poll_loop is called for busypoll. This way last_qs would not reset to latest jiffies on each invocation of napi_threaded_poll_loop.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-43385 since 05/01/2026. The exploitation appears to be difficult. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 313448 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-43385), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.19.9 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 52459201d0df3fdbb1d281738b7b772e2cacb49c/1a86a1f7d88996085934139fa4c063b6299a2dd3 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 Tenable (313448). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 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

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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Entryinfo

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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