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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2025-39677: Linux kernel · net/sched: Fix backlog accounting in qdisc_dequeue_internal

Affects Linux kernelSource CVE Database V5

0

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.8 High · fixed in dcfed7251e23cd71d32c4ecc444ff97992087e46 : patch Linux kernel soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 14:18 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
7.8High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 10% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
CISA SSVC
Exploitation
No evidence of active exploitation and no public proof of concept
Automatable
Attackers cannot reliably automate steps 1–4 of the kill chain
Technical impact
Total control over the software or total information disclosure

CISA SSVC assessment, 2026-10-15.

Patch
Available – fixed in dcfed7251e23cd71d32c4ecc444ff97992087e46, a225f44d84b8900d679c5f5a9ea46fe9c0cc7802, 52bf272636bda69587952b35ae97690b8dc89941 +1
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 5 Sep 2025

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponised: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

What to do

Upgrade Linux kernel to dcfed7251e23cd71d32c4ecc444ff97992087e46, a225f44d84b8900d679c5f5a9ea46fe9c0cc7802, 52bf272636bda69587952b35ae97690b8dc89941 or 38cdf8d1f5f3ee133f6e48dd422df4057fa9bfcb.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
LinuxLinuxAffected
  • ≥ 4b549a2ef4bef9965d97cbd992ba67930cd3e0fe, < dcfed7251e23cd71d32c4ecc444ff97992087e46
Fixed in
  • dcfed7251e23cd71d32c4ecc444ff97992087e46
LinuxLinuxAffected
  • ≥ 4b549a2ef4bef9965d97cbd992ba67930cd3e0fe, < a225f44d84b8900d679c5f5a9ea46fe9c0cc7802
Fixed in
  • a225f44d84b8900d679c5f5a9ea46fe9c0cc7802
LinuxLinuxAffected
  • ≥ 4b549a2ef4bef9965d97cbd992ba67930cd3e0fe, < 52bf272636bda69587952b35ae97690b8dc89941
Fixed in
  • 52bf272636bda69587952b35ae97690b8dc89941
LinuxLinuxAffected
  • ≥ 4b549a2ef4bef9965d97cbd992ba67930cd3e0fe, < 38cdf8d1f5f3ee133f6e48dd422df4057fa9bfcb
Fixed in
  • 38cdf8d1f5f3ee133f6e48dd422df4057fa9bfcb
LinuxLinuxAffected
  • =3.5
Fixed in–

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: Fix backlog accounting in qdisc_dequeue_internal This issue applies for the following qdiscs: hhf, fq, fq_codel, and fq_pie, and occurs in their change handlers when adjusting to the new limit. The problem is the following in the values passed to the subsequent qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog call given a tbf parent: When the tbf parent runs out of tokens, skbs of these qdiscs will be placed in gso_skb. Their peek handlers are qdisc_peek_dequeued, which accounts for both qlen and backlog. However, in the case of qdisc_dequeue_internal, ONLY qlen is accounted for when pulling from gso_skb. This means that these qdiscs are missing a qdisc_qstats_backlog_dec when dropping packets to satisfy the new limit in their change handlers. One can observe this issue with the following (with tc patched to support a limit of 0): export TARGET=fq tc qdisc del dev lo root tc qdisc add dev lo root handle 1: tbf rate 8bit burst 100b latency 1ms tc qdisc replace dev lo handle 3: parent 1:1 $TARGET limit 1000 echo ''; echo 'add child'; tc -s -d qdisc show dev lo ping -I lo -f -c2 -s32 -W0.001 127.0.0.1 2>&1 >/dev/null echo ''; echo 'after ping'; tc -s -d qdisc show dev lo tc qdisc change dev lo handle 3: parent 1:1 $TARGET limit 0 echo ''; echo 'after limit drop'; tc -s -d qdisc show dev lo tc qdisc replace dev lo handle 2: parent 1:1 sfq echo ''; echo 'post graft'; tc -s -d qdisc show dev lo The second to last show command shows 0 packets but a positive number (74) of backlog bytes. The problem becomes clearer in the last show command, where qdisc_purge_queue triggers qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog with the positive backlog and causes an underflow in the tbf parent's backlog (4096 Mb instead of 0). To fix this issue, the codepath for all clients of qdisc_dequeue_internal has been simplified: codel, pie, hhf, fq, fq_pie, and fq_codel. qdisc_dequeue_internal handles the backlog adjustments for all cases that do not directly use the dequeue handler. The old fq_codel_change limit adjustment loop accumulated the arguments to the subsequent qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog call through the cstats field. However, this is confusing and error prone as fq_codel_dequeue could also potentially mutate this field (which qdisc_dequeue_internal calls in the non gso_skb case), so we have unified the code here with other qdiscs.

References

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