---
id: CVE-2026-46173
title: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  exit: prevent preemption of oopsing TASK_DEAD task

  When an already-exiting task oopses, make_task_dead() currently calls
  do_task_dead() with preemption enabled
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  exit: prevent preemption of oopsing TASK_DEAD task

  When an already-exiting task oopses, make_task_dead() currently calls
  do_task_dead() with preemption enabled.  That …
severity: high
cvss: 7.8
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'
cwe:
  - CWE-787
vendor: linux
product: linux_kernel
affected:
  - 'linux_kernel >= 5.17, < 6.1.175'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.140'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.88'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.18.30'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.19, < 7.0.7'
  - linux_kernel = 7.1
patched:
  - linux_kernel 7.0.7
published: '2026-05-28'
updated: '2026-09-08'
sourceUpdated: '2026-09-08T09:18:08.613'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-46173'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3d6fb8a7690c23e3213c4b008f64d89a44b98737'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/640b4c00fb0e2920327435f6176cbefc3c546165'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6f49f94f3b11fe8bff1bf2a054143789e76aaf17'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7b2800ba5f5f77a8ee7f4cbadb19cf1264597a34'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9756b3db5db6c2f5eccb32dddbd88eb4c54f575e'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c1fa0bb633e4a6b11e83ffc57fa5abe8ebb87891'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://project-zero.issues.chromium.org/issues/510793286'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-019113.html'
    label: 0b142b55-0307-4c5a-b3c9-f314f3fb7c5e
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
epss: 0.00171
epssPercentile: 0.05738
ingestedAt: '2026-09-08T13:33:24.665Z'
---

## Overview

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

exit: prevent preemption of oopsing TASK_DEAD task

When an already-exiting task oopses, make_task_dead() currently calls
do_task_dead() with preemption enabled.  That is forbidden:
do_task_dead() calls __schedule(), which has a comment saying "WARNING:
must be called with preemption disabled!".

If an oopsing task is preempted in do_task_dead(), between becoming
TASK_DEAD and entering the scheduler explicitly, bad things happen:
finish_task_switch() assumes that once the scheduler has switched away
from a TASK_DEAD task, the task can never run again and its stack is no
longer needed; but that assumption apparently doesn't hold if the dead
task was preempted (the SM_PREEMPT case).

This means that the scheduler ends up repeatedly dropping references on
the dead task's stack, which can lead to use-after-free or double-free
of the entire task stack; in other words, two tasks can end up running
on the same stack, resulting in various kinds of memory corruption.

(This does not just affect "recursively oopsing" tasks; it is enough to
oops once during task exit, for example in a file_operations::release
handler)

## Affected

- `linux_kernel >= 5.17, < 6.1.175`
- `linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.140`
- `linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.88`
- `linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.18.30`
- `linux_kernel >= 6.19, < 7.0.7`
- `linux_kernel = 7.1`

## Remediation

Upgrade past the affected range:

- `linux_kernel 7.0.7`