Medium · published September 16, 2025
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
rcu/rcuscale: Stop kfree_scale_thread thread(s) after unloading rcuscale
Running the 'kfree_rcu_test' test case [1] results in a splat [2].
The root cause is the kfree_scale_thread thread(s) continue running
after unloading the rcuscale module. This commit fixes that isue by
invoking kfree_scale_cleanup() from rcu_scale_cleanup() when removing
the rcuscale module.
[1] modprobe rcuscale kfree_rcu_test=1
// After some time
rmmod rcuscale
rmmod torture
[2] BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffffffc0601a87
#PF: supervisor instruction fetch in kernel mode
#PF: error_code(0x0010) - not-present page
PGD 11de4f067 P4D 11de4f067 PUD 11de51067 PMD 112f4d067 PTE 0
Oops: 0010 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI
CPU: 1 PID: 1798 Comm: kfree_scale_thr Not tainted 6.3.0-rc1-rcu+ #1
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015
RIP: 0010:0xffffffffc0601a87
Code: Unable to access opcode bytes at 0xffffffffc0601a5d.
RSP: 0018:ffffb25bc2e57e18 EFLAGS: 00010297
RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffffffffc061f0b6 RCX: 0000000000000000
RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffffffff962fd0de RDI: ffffffff962fd0de
RBP: ffffb25bc2e57ea8 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: 0000000000000000
R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 000000000000000a R15: 00000000001c1dbe
FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff921fa2200000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: ffffffffc0601a5d CR3: 000000011de4c006 CR4: 0000000000370ee0
DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
Call Trace:
<TASK>
? kvfree_call_rcu+0xf0/0x3a0
? kthread+0xf3/0x120
? kthread_complete_and_exit+0x20/0x20
? ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30
</TASK>
Modules linked in: rfkill sunrpc ... [last unloaded: torture]
CR2: ffffffffc0601a87
---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---