CVE-2026-43402
Analyzed
Analyzed - Analysis Complete
Use-After-Free in Linux Kernel kthread Exit Path
Publication date: 2026-05-08
Last updated on: 2026-05-21
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
kthread: consolidate kthread exit paths to prevent use-after-free
Guillaume reported crashes via corrupted RCU callback function pointers
during KUnit testing. The crash was traced back to the pidfs rhashtable
conversion which replaced the 24-byte rb_node with an 8-byte rhash_head
in struct pid, shrinking it from 160 to 144 bytes.
struct kthread (without CONFIG_BLK_CGROUP) is also 144 bytes. With
CONFIG_SLAB_MERGE_DEFAULT and SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN both round up to
192 bytes and share the same slab cache. struct pid.rcu.func and
struct kthread.affinity_node both sit at offset 0x78.
When a kthread exits via make_task_dead() it bypasses kthread_exit() and
misses the affinity_node cleanup. free_kthread_struct() frees the memory
while the node is still linked into the global kthread_affinity_list. A
subsequent list_del() by another kthread writes through dangling list
pointers into the freed and reused memory, corrupting the pid's
rcu.func pointer.
Instead of patching free_kthread_struct() to handle the missed cleanup,
consolidate all kthread exit paths. Turn kthread_exit() into a macro
that calls do_exit() and add kthread_do_exit() which is called from
do_exit() for any task with PF_KTHREAD set. This guarantees that
kthread-specific cleanup always happens regardless of the exit path -
make_task_dead(), direct do_exit(), or kthread_exit().
Replace __to_kthread() with a new tsk_is_kthread() accessor in the
public header. Export do_exit() since module code using the
kthread_exit() macro now needs it directly.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | 7.0 |
| linux | linux_kernel | 7.0 |
| linux | linux_kernel | From 6.19 (inc) to 6.19.9 (exc) |
| linux | linux_kernel | From 6.14 (inc) to 6.18.19 (exc) |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-416 | The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer. |
