Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition ('Infinite Loop') Affecting kernel-debug-modules-internal package, versions *


Severity

Recommended
0.0
medium
0
10

Based on CentOS security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.22% (12th percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-CENTOS8-KERNELDEBUGMODULESINTERNAL-21523403
  • published23 Oct 2026
  • disclosed18 Oct 2026

Introduced: 18 Oct 2026

NewCVE-2026-98610  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-835  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

There is no fixed version for Centos:8 kernel-debug-modules-internal.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream kernel-debug-modules-internal package and not the kernel-debug-modules-internal package as distributed by Centos. See How to fix? for Centos:8 relevant fixed versions and status.

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

net/sched: sch_hfsc: bound the classify inner-filter walk with a drift budget

hfsc_classify() applies the "filter may only point downwards" level check only when the filter result carries no bound class. A filter created with a flowid gets res.class set once at bind time, so the check never runs for it during classification. hfsc_adjust_levels() can later raise a class's level without revalidating existing bindings, leaving two binds that were each legal at bind time pointing at each other; the classify walk then bounces between two interior classes forever with the qdisc lock held and BH disabled — a soft lockup from a single packet. The stuck walk trips the watchdog:

watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#3 stuck for 13s! [ping:444] RIP: 0010:u32_classify+0x542/0x17f0 ... tcf_classify+0x66/0xa0 hfsc_enqueue+0x166/0xdf0

Bound the traversal with a budget of non-descending hops, the only way a configured walk can move without descending the class tree once levels drift after bind time. The budget is cumulative over the whole walk and is deliberately not reset on a descending hop: a chain that alternates a descent with a lateral hop would return the budget every lap and never trip. Descending hops never decrement it, so legitimately deep trees are unaffected and a terminating lateral chain still classifies normally. Drop the packet with a rate-limited warning once the budget is exhausted, mirroring the merged HTB fix.

This is a follow-up to commit 729c4896ab82 ("net/sched: sch_htb: limit htb_classify inner-class filter hops"), which bounded the same classify loop on the HTB side but left the HFSC walk unbounded.

Conditions to recreate the bug:

  • CONFIG_NET_SCHED, CONFIG_NET_SCH_HFSC, CONFIG_NET_CLS_U32, CONFIG_LOCKUP_DETECTOR.
  • Build a cycle with two legal-at-bind-time flowid binds and a level drift: class X 1:1 (child of root) with leaf child 1:10; class Y 1:2 (sibling of X) with children 1:20 and 1:200; root u32 filter flowid 1:1; filter on X flowid 1:2 (legal when Y is a leaf); after Y's level rises to 2, filter on Y flowid 1:1 (legal then). Send one packet (ping on the device). Unfixed kernel: classify spins with the qdisc lock held; with softlockup_panic=1 it panics.
  • Reachable from unprivileged user via unshare -Urn (CAP_NET_ADMIN).

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1