published October 18, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net/sched: sch_hfsc: bound the classify inner-filter walk with a drift budget
hfsc_classify() applies the "filter may only point downwards" level check
only when the filter result carries no bound class. A filter created with
a flowid gets res.class set once at bind time, so the check never runs for
it during classification. hfsc_adjust_levels() can later raise a class's
level without revalidating existing bindings, leaving two binds that were
each legal at bind time pointing at each other; the classify walk then
bounces between two interior classes forever with the qdisc lock held and
BH disabled — a soft lockup from a single packet. The stuck walk trips
the watchdog:
watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#3 stuck for 13s! [ping:444]
RIP: 0010:u32_classify+0x542/0x17f0
...
tcf_classify+0x66/0xa0
hfsc_enqueue+0x166/0xdf0
Bound the traversal with a budget of non-descending hops, the only way a
configured walk can move without descending the class tree once levels
drift after bind time. The budget is cumulative over the whole walk and
is deliberately not reset on a descending hop: a chain that alternates a
descent with a lateral hop would return the budget every lap and never
trip. Descending hops never decrement it, so legitimately deep trees are
unaffected and a terminating lateral chain still classifies normally.
Drop the packet with a rate-limited warning once the budget is exhausted,
mirroring the merged HTB fix.
This is a follow-up to commit 729c4896ab82 ("net/sched: sch_htb: limit
htb_classify inner-class filter hops"), which bounded the same classify
loop on the HTB side but left the HFSC walk unbounded.
Conditions to recreate the bug:
- CONFIG_NET_SCHED, CONFIG_NET_SCH_HFSC, CONFIG_NET_CLS_U32,
CONFIG_LOCKUP_DETECTOR.
- Build a cycle with two legal-at-bind-time flowid binds and a level
drift: class X 1:1 (child of root) with leaf child 1:10; class Y 1:2
(sibling of X) with children 1:20 and 1:200; root u32 filter flowid
1:1; filter on X flowid 1:2 (legal when Y is a leaf); after Y's level
rises to 2, filter on Y flowid 1:1 (legal then). Send one packet (ping
on the device). Unfixed kernel: classify spins with the qdisc lock
held; with softlockup_panic=1 it panics.
- Reachable from unprivileged user via unshare -Urn (CAP_NET_ADMIN).