CVE-2026-64211 srcu: Don't queue workqueue handlers to never-online CPUs

Medium 5.5 Published Updated

A flaw in the Linux kernel's SRCU implementation can cause system hangs on s390 architectures by queuing work on never-online CPUs.

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

What is CVE-2026-64211?

CVE-2026-64211 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 Jul 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:

srcu: Don't queue workqueue handlers to never-online CPUs

While an srcu_struct structure is in the midst of switching from CPU-0 to all-CPUs state, it can attempt to invoke callbacks for CPUs that have never been online. Worse yet, it can attempt in invoke callbacks for CPUs that never will be online, even including imaginary CPUs not in cpu_possible_mask. This can cause hangs on s390, which is not set up to deal with workqueue handlers being scheduled on such CPUs. This commit therefore causes Tree SRCU to refrain from queueing workqueue handlers on CPUs that have not yet (and might never) come online.

Because callbacks are not invoked on CPUs that have not been online, it is an error to invoke call_srcu(), synchronize_srcu(), or synchronize_srcu_expedited() on a CPU that is not yet fully online. However, it turns out to be less code to redirect the callbacks from too-early invocations of call_srcu() than to warn about such invocations. This commit therefore also redirects callbacks queued on not-yet-fully-online CPUs to the boot CPU.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-64211?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-64211?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2026-64211 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-64211 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-64211, GHSA-9gr3-vwh2-w2vv, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-64211, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-64211.

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