published October 18, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
kprobes: Fix permanent hang when flushing the kprobe optimizer
Writing 0 to /proc/sys/debug/kprobes-optimization while a kprobe is
jump-optimized never returns. The writer sleeps in D state forever with
kprobe_sysctl_mutex held, so any later read or write of that sysctl
hangs as well. For example, with vfs_read+9 as an optimizable address
in this build:
# cd /sys/kernel/tracing
# echo 'p:myprobe vfs_read+9' >> kprobe_events
# echo 1 > events/kprobes/myprobe/enable
# # wait until /sys/kernel/debug/kprobes/list shows [OPTIMIZED]
# echo 0 > /proc/sys/debug/kprobes-optimization
INFO: task sh:246 blocked for more than 10 seconds.
Call Trace:
<TASK>
__schedule+0x1176/0x4f70
schedule+0xdc/0x2c0
schedule_timeout+0x17b/0x260
wait_for_completion+0x173/0x3c0
wait_for_kprobe_optimizer_locked+0xbc/0x130
proc_kprobes_optimization_handler+0x156/0x1b0
proc_sys_call_handler+0x324/0x490
vfs_write+0x52d/0xfe0
ksys_write+0xff/0x200
do_syscall_64+0x106/0x630
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
</TASK>
...
INFO: task cat:265 is blocked on a mutex likely owned by task sh:246.
wait_for_kprobe_optimizer_locked() reinitializes optimizer_completion,
asks the optimizer thread to flush and sleeps in wait_for_completion().
The thread drains the (un)optimizing lists, but calls complete() only
if completion_done() is true, i.e. if the completion is already done,
which never happens while someone waits. disarm_all_kprobes() and
kprobe_trace_self_tests_init() wait the same way.
Calling complete() unconditionally would not be enough: the waiter
drops kprobe_mutex while it sleeps, and nothing else serializes the
sysctl handler against the debugfs "enabled" file. A second flusher
that still finds the lists non-empty, e.g. because a disabled probe is
queued for unoptimizing, reinitializes the completion under the first:
sysctl write debugfs "enabled" write
unoptimize_all_kprobes()
wait_for_kprobe_optimizer_locked()
init_completion(c)
mutex_unlock(&kprobe_mutex)
wait_for_completion(c)
disarm_all_kprobes()
wait_for_kprobe_optimizer_locked()
init_completion(c)
// c->wait is reset, the first
// waiter is off the queue
mutex_unlock(&kprobe_mutex)
wait_for_completion(c)
kprobe_optimizer()
complete(c)
// wakes the debugfs writer only
where c is &optimizer_completion. Lining up the two writes during an
optimizer pass loses the sysctl writer this way.
Replace the completion with a counter of optimizer passes, bumped at the
end of each pass and signalled with wake_up_var_locked(), both under
kprobe_mutex. A flusher samples the count and waits with
wait_var_event_mutex(), which drops kprobe_mutex only while sleeping, so
a new count means a whole pass ran in the meantime. Nothing is
reinitialized, so several flushers can sleep in the wait at once.