CVE-2026-23371: linux kernel vulnerability

What is known

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sched/deadline: Fix missing ENQUEUE_REPLENISH during PI de-boosting Running stress-ng --schedpolicy 0 on an RT kernel on a big machine might lead to the following WARNINGs (edited). sched: DL de-boosted task PID 22725: REPLENISH flag missing WARNING: CPU: 93 PID: 0 at kernel/sched/deadline.c:239 dequeue_task_dl+0x15c/0x1f8 ... (running_bw underflow) Call trace: dequeue_task_dl+0x15c/0x1f8 (P) dequeue_task+0x80/0x168 deactivate_task+0x24/0x50 push_dl_task+0x264/0x2e0 dl_task_timer+0x1b0/0x228 __hrtimer_run_queues+0x188/0x378 hrtimer_interrupt+0xfc/0x260 ... The problem is that when a SCHED_DEADLINE task (lock holder) is changed to a lower priority class via sched_setscheduler(), it may fail to properly inherit the parameters of potential DEADLINE donors if it didn't already inherit them in the past (shorter deadline than donor's at that time). This might lead to bandwidth accounting corruption, as enqueue_task_dl() won't recognize the lock holder as boosted. The scenario occurs when: 1. A DEADLINE task (donor) blocks on a PI mutex held by another DEADLINE task (holder), but the holder doesn't inherit parameters (e.g., it already has a shorter deadline) 2. sched_setscheduler() changes the holder from DEADLINE to a lower class while still holding the mutex 3. The holder should now inherit DEADLINE parameters from the donor and be enqueued with ENQUEUE_REPLENISH, but this doesn't happen Fix the issue by introducing __setscheduler_dl_pi(), which detects when a DEADLINE (proper or boosted) task gets setscheduled to a lower priority class. In case, the function makes the task inherit DEADLINE parameters of the donoer (pi_se) and sets ENQUEUE_REPLENISH flag to ensure proper bandwidth accounting during the next enqueue operation.

Business impact

Successful exploitation of CVE-2026-23371, a medium vulnerability (CVSS 5.5) affecting linux kernel, may affect the confidentiality, integrity or availability of the vulnerable environment. The exact impact depends on the installed version, exposed interfaces and deployment configuration.

Recommended administrator action

Confirm whether linux kernel is present and compare installed versions with the vendor advisory and NVD record. Apply the vendor patch or documented mitigation; until remediation is complete, reduce exposure of affected interfaces, review relevant logs and monitor for indicators of exploitation. DataHouse can support version verification, managed patching, network exposure reduction, log review and backup validation for dedicated, cloud and colocated environments.

Sources

• NVD
• Reference
• Reference
• Reference