# CVE-2026-98069: net/rds: acquire the fastpath locks in rds_conn_shutdown()

> A race condition in the Linux kernel RDS module allows concurrent execution of transmit paths and connection teardown, leading to system crashes.

- **Severity:** High 8.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 25 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-104445, BELL-CVE-2026-98069, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98069, GHSA-8xjr-h523-r9wr, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98069

## What is CVE-2026-98069?

CVE-2026-98069 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, published on 25 Sep 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/rds: acquire the fastpath locks in rds_conn_shutdown()

rds_conn_shutdown() quiesces the transmit and receive-refill paths by
waiting for RDS_IN_XMIT and RDS_RECV_REFILL to be sampled clear, and
then runs the transport shutdown and rds_conn_path_reset().  Sampling
the bits clear is not the same as owning them: the moment after the
wait_event() returns, rds_send_xmit() can re-acquire RDS_IN_XMIT (or
rds_ib_recv_refill() can re-acquire RDS_RECV_REFILL) and run
concurrently with the teardown.

The sender does recheck the connection state after taking the lock,
but that recheck is a classic store-buffering pattern: teardown writes
the state and reads the bit while the sender writes the bit and reads
the state.  acquire_in_xmit() is only an acquire operation, so on
weakly ordered architectures both sides can miss each other's write,
and the transmit path then runs while the transport zeroes its rings
(e.g. rds_ib_ring_init()) and rds_send_path_reset() rewrites the
transmit state under it.

Oracle UEK fixed the same class of crashes - a 14-year tail of
BUG_ON()s in rds_ib_sub_signaled(), unexpected op-codes and NULL
dereferences in rds_ib_send_cqe_handler() during failover testing -
by making the teardown path *acquire* the fastpath bit locks instead
of testing them ("rds: Make sure transmit path and connection
tear-down does not run concurrently").  Ownership of a single word is
decided by RMW atomicity, so no cross-variable ordering is needed.

Do the same here: take both locks before calling the transport
shutdown, hold them across rds_conn_path_reset(), and release them
explicitly with a wake-up afterwards.  Both are released with
clear_bit_unlock(), so that the ring re-initialization done by the
transport shutdown and the transmit state rewritten by
rds_send_path_reset() are ordered before either bit is seen clear by
the next acquire_in_xmit() or acquire_refill().

The fastpath users of these bits - rds_send_xmit() and
rds_ib_recv_refill() - are trylock style and back off while teardown
owns the locks, so no new lock dependency is introduced for them.
rds_tcp_reset_callbacks() is different: since the previous patch it
acquires RDS_IN_XMIT as well, and it blocks doing so, so its wait now
spans the teardown instead of at most one send batch.  That waiter
runs from rds_tcp_accept_one() on the single-threaded krdsd workqueue
and holds rds_tcp_accept_lock and t_conn_path_lock while it waits, so
a duelling SYN accepted while its path is being torn down parks
accept processing for the duration of the teardown - for TCP bounded
by the (up to 5 s) drain loop in rds_tcp_conn_path_shutdown().  An IB
path's drain in rds_ib_conn_path_shutdown() has no round cap, but no
blocking waiter either: rds_tcp_reset_callbacks() is the only blocking
acquirer of these bits and waits only on its own TCP path, and the
fastpaths are trylock-and-back-off on both transports, so a long IB
drain lengthens only that path's own quiesce.  The
window is narrow: the accept-side state check has to pass before the
teardown moves the path to RDS_CONN_DISCONNECTING.

Because krdsd is a single global workqueue, everything else queued
there - accept processing for other connections and network
namespaces, and the flush_workqueue(rds_wq) in rds_tcp_listen_stop()
during namespace teardown - waits behind the parked accept worker for
that time.  It cannot deadlock, although the waits do point at each
other: the teardown blocks until the bit's holder releases it, and
the holder may be that krdsd accept worker.  The holder finishes
without needing anything the teardown owns: the sync cancels
rds_tcp_reset_callbacks() issues target cp_send_w and cp_recv_w on
the path's ordered cp_wq, whose only execution slot is occupied by
the blocked cp_down_w itself, so they are pending at most and cancel
without flushing - a reliance on cp_wq being ordered that is now
noted next to those cancels (on 
---truncated---

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98069?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-98069?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-98069 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98069 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-98069 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-98069 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, published on 25 Sep 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-2026-98069 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2026-98069/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98069/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-98069
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98069
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-98069

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98069/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
