# CVE-2026-43385: net: Fix rcu_tasks stall in threaded busypoll

> Enabling threaded busypoll causes RCU stalls and system hangs, leading to denial of service in the Linux kernel.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 8 May 2026
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2026-43385, GHSA-c4q6-6h64-7hfv, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-43385

## What is CVE-2026-43385?

CVE-2026-43385 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 8 May 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

net: Fix rcu_tasks stall in threaded busypoll

I was debugging a NIC driver when I noticed that when I enable
threaded busypoll, bpftrace hangs when starting up. dmesg showed:

  rcu_tasks_wait_gp: rcu_tasks grace period number 85 (since boot) is 10658 jiffies old.
  rcu_tasks_wait_gp: rcu_tasks grace period number 85 (since boot) is 40793 jiffies old.
  rcu_tasks_wait_gp: rcu_tasks grace period number 85 (since boot) is 131273 jiffies old.
  rcu_tasks_wait_gp: rcu_tasks grace period number 85 (since boot) is 402058 jiffies old.
  INFO: rcu_tasks detected stalls on tasks:
  00000000769f52cd: .N nvcsw: 2/2 holdout: 1 idle_cpu: -1/64
  task:napi/eth2-8265  state:R  running task     stack:0     pid:48300 tgid:48300 ppid:2      task_flags:0x208040 flags:0x00004000
  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   ? napi_threaded_poll_loop+0x27c/0x2c0
   ? __pfx_napi_threaded_poll+0x10/0x10
   ? napi_threaded_poll+0x26/0x80
   ? kthread+0xfa/0x240
   ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
   ? ret_from_fork+0x31/0x50
   ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
   ? ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
   </TASK>

The cause is that in threaded busypoll, the main loop is in
napi_threaded_poll rather than napi_threaded_poll_loop, where the
latter rarely iterates more than once within its loop. For
rcu_softirq_qs_periodic inside napi_threaded_poll_loop to report its
qs state, the last_qs must be 100ms behind, and this can't happen
because napi_threaded_poll_loop rarely iterates in threaded busypoll,
and each time napi_threaded_poll_loop is called last_qs is reset to
latest jiffies.

This patch changes so that in threaded busypoll, last_qs is saved
in the outer napi_threaded_poll, and whether busy_poll_last_qs
is NULL indicates whether napi_threaded_poll_loop is called for
busypoll. This way last_qs would not reset to latest jiffies on
each invocation of napi_threaded_poll_loop.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-43385?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-43385?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-43385 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-43385 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-43385 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-43385 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 8 May 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-43385 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43385/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43385/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-43385
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-43385
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-43385

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43385/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.