CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-89752

Low risk· EPSS 6%
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.17%

6th percentile - higher than 6% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel, kernfs serializes file operations only per open file, so concurrent writes to memory.high or memory.max can overlap. If another writer raises or removes the limit, the first writer may keep reclaiming toward a stale target, and for memory.max it can loop indefinitely while repeatedly incrementing the OOM event counter.

Risk Assessment

The flaw can cause the cgroup memory limit updating process to hang and produce spurious OOM events, disrupting monitoring and potentially triggering unnecessary operational actions. In extreme cases it affects container memory management stability.

Recommendation

Update the Linux kernel to a version with the fix that checks the current limit at the start of each reclaim iteration and stops when it no longer matches the writer's target. Avoid concurrent modifications of memory.high/memory.max from different open files.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

See all
Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: memcg: stop reclaim when a limit update is superseded kernfs serializes file operations only per open file, so separate open files can update the same memory.high or memory.max file concurrently. Both handlers store the new limit before synchronous reclaim, but continue to use the writer's local target in the reclaim loop. If another writer raises or removes the limit, the first writer can continue reclaiming toward a stale target. For memory.max, this can leave the writer looping indefinitely once reclaim retries are exhausted. The OOM path sees sufficient margin under the current limit and returns true without killing, while the writer still compares usage against its stale target and records another OOM event. Check the current limit at the start of each reclaim iteration and stop if it no longer matches the writer's target. Reproducer: Populate a cgroup with anonymous memory and disable swapping. Lower memory.max from one open file, then restore it to "max" through another open file after the new limit becomes visible. Without the patch, the first writer remains blocked and repeatedly increments the OOM event counter. With the patch, it returns normally. This was not motivated by a reported production workload. We found it through automated randomized testing for our cgroup observability work and reduced it to the reproducer above.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS