# CVE-2026-52980: sched/fair: Clear rel_deadline when initializing forked entities

> A Linux kernel bug in the fair scheduler causes a NULL pointer dereference and system crash when a forked task yields due to uninitialized deadline state.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 24 Jun 2026
- **Updated:** 24 Jun 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-52980, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-52980, GHSA-748m-jm5v-3475, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-52980

## What is CVE-2026-52980?

CVE-2026-52980 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 Jun 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

sched/fair: Clear rel_deadline when initializing forked entities

A yield-triggered crash can happen when a newly forked sched_entity
enters the fair class with se->rel_deadline unexpectedly set.

The failing sequence is:

  1. A task is forked while se->rel_deadline is still set.
  2. __sched_fork() initializes vruntime, vlag and other sched_entity
     state, but does not clear rel_deadline.
  3. On the first enqueue, enqueue_entity() calls place_entity().
  4. Because se->rel_deadline is set, place_entity() treats se->deadline
     as a relative deadline and converts it to an absolute deadline by
     adding the current vruntime.
  5. However, the forked entity's deadline is not a valid inherited
     relative deadline for this new scheduling instance, so the conversion
     produces an abnormally large deadline.
  6. If the task later calls sched_yield(), yield_task_fair() advances
     se->vruntime to se->deadline.
  7. The inflated vruntime is then used by the following enqueue path,
     where the vruntime-derived key can overflow when multiplied by the
     entity weight.
  8. This corrupts cfs_rq->sum_w_vruntime, breaks EEVDF eligibility
     calculation, and can eventually make all entities appear ineligible.
     pick_next_entity() may then return NULL unexpectedly, leading to a
     later NULL dereference.

A captured trace shows the effect clearly. Before yield, the entity's
vruntime was around:

  9834017729983308

After yield_task_fair() executed:

  se->vruntime = se->deadline

the vruntime jumped to:

  19668035460670230

and the deadline was later advanced further to:

  19668035463470230

This shows that the deadline had already become abnormally large before
yield_task_fair() copied it into vruntime.

rel_deadline is only meaningful when se->deadline really carries a
relative deadline that still needs to be placed against vruntime. A
freshly forked sched_entity should not inherit or retain this state.
Clear se->rel_deadline in __sched_fork(), together with the other
sched_entity runtime state, so that the first enqueue does not interpret
the new entity's deadline as a stale relative deadline.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-52980?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-52980?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-52980 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-52980 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-2026-52980 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-52980 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 Jun 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-52980 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-2026-52980/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-52980/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-52980
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-52980
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-52980

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-52980/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.