CVE ID : CVE-2025-37821
Published : May 8, 2025, 7:15 a.m. | 58 minutes ago
Description : In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
sched/eevdf: Fix se->slice being set to U64_MAX and resulting crash
There is a code path in dequeue_entities() that can set the slice of a
sched_entity to U64_MAX, which sometimes results in a crash.
The offending case is when dequeue_entities() is called to dequeue a
delayed group entity, and then the entity’s parent’s dequeue is delayed.
In that case:
1. In the if (entity_is_task(se)) else block at the beginning of
dequeue_entities(), slice is set to
cfs_rq_min_slice(group_cfs_rq(se)). If the entity was delayed, then
it has no queued tasks, so cfs_rq_min_slice() returns U64_MAX.
2. The first for_each_sched_entity() loop dequeues the entity.
3. If the entity was its parent’s only child, then the next iteration
tries to dequeue the parent.
4. If the parent’s dequeue needs to be delayed, then it breaks from the
first for_each_sched_entity() loop _without updating slice_.
5. The second for_each_sched_entity() loop sets the parent’s ->slice to
the saved slice, which is still U64_MAX.
This throws off subsequent calculations with potentially catastrophic
results. A manifestation we saw in production was:
6. In update_entity_lag(), se->slice is used to calculate limit, which
ends up as a huge negative number.
7. limit is used in se->vlag = clamp(vlag, -limit, limit). Because limit
is negative, vlag > limit, so se->vlag is set to the same huge
negative number.
8. In place_entity(), se->vlag is scaled, which overflows and results in
another huge (positive or negative) number.
9. The adjusted lag is subtracted from se->vruntime, which increases or
decreases se->vruntime by a huge number.
10. pick_eevdf() calls entity_eligible()/vruntime_eligible(), which
incorrectly returns false because the vruntime is so far from the
other vruntimes on the queue, causing the
(vruntime – cfs_rq->min_vruntime) * load calulation to overflow.
11. Nothing appears to be eligible, so pick_eevdf() returns NULL.
12. pick_next_entity() tries to dereference the return value of
pick_eevdf() and crashes.
Dumping the cfs_rq states from the core dumps with drgn showed tell-tale
huge vruntime ranges and bogus vlag values, and I also traced se->slice
being set to U64_MAX on live systems (which was usually “benign” since
the rest of the runqueue needed to be in a particular state to crash).
Fix it in dequeue_entities() by always setting slice from the first
non-empty cfs_rq.
Severity: 0.0 | NA
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