published October 1, 2025
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
cgroup,freezer: hold cpu_hotplug_lock before freezer_mutex
syzbot is reporting circular locking dependency between cpu_hotplug_lock
and freezer_mutex, for commit f5d39b020809 ("freezer,sched: Rewrite core
freezer logic") replaced atomic_inc() in freezer_apply_state() with
static_branch_inc() which holds cpu_hotplug_lock.
cpu_hotplug_lock => cgroup_threadgroup_rwsem => freezer_mutex
cgroup_file_write() {
cgroup_procs_write() {
__cgroup_procs_write() {
cgroup_procs_write_start() {
cgroup_attach_lock() {
cpus_read_lock() {
percpu_down_read(&cpu_hotplug_lock);
}
percpu_down_write(&cgroup_threadgroup_rwsem);
}
}
cgroup_attach_task() {
cgroup_migrate() {
cgroup_migrate_execute() {
freezer_attach() {
mutex_lock(&freezer_mutex);
(...snipped...)
}
}
}
}
(...snipped...)
}
}
}
freezer_mutex => cpu_hotplug_lock
cgroup_file_write() {
freezer_write() {
freezer_change_state() {
mutex_lock(&freezer_mutex);
freezer_apply_state() {
static_branch_inc(&freezer_active) {
static_key_slow_inc() {
cpus_read_lock();
static_key_slow_inc_cpuslocked();
cpus_read_unlock();
}
}
}
mutex_unlock(&freezer_mutex);
}
}
}
Swap locking order by moving cpus_read_lock() in freezer_apply_state()
to before mutex_lock(&freezer_mutex) in freezer_change_state().