[PATCH] posix-cpu-timers: Fix pid refcount leak in do_cpu_nanosleep() signal path
From: Cen Zhang (Microsoft)
Date: Mon Oct 12 2026 - 19:55:12 EST
do_cpu_nanosleep() sleeps on a temporary k_itimer whose reference on the
target's struct pid is taken by posix_cpu_timer_create() and dropped by
posix_cpu_timer_del(). When a signal ends the sleep, the timer is
disarmed with posix_cpu_timer_set(), but posix_cpu_timer_del() is only
called for a result of 0 or TIMER_RETRY. If the target thread or process
has exited in the meantime, timer_lock_sighand() finds no task,
posix_cpu_timer_set() returns -ESRCH and the pid reference is leaked.
An unprivileged user can trigger this: sleep on the CPU clock of a
thread, let that thread exit, then signal the sleeper. Each round leaks
one struct pid. Repeating it exhausts unreclaimable slab memory
within minutes:
Out of memory: Killed process 150 (poc) total-vm:789292kB, anon-rss:484kB
Kernel panic - not syncing: System is deadlocked on memory
Fix this by also calling posix_cpu_timer_del() on -ESRCH. With the
target gone, the deletion is safe. It finds no task either and only
drops the pid reference.
Fixes: e26d70d271ee ("posix-timers: Cleanup reaped target handling")
Reported-by: AutonomousCodeSecurity@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Cen Zhang (Microsoft) <cenzhang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
kernel/time/posix-cpu-timers.c | 4 ++--
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/kernel/time/posix-cpu-timers.c b/kernel/time/posix-cpu-timers.c
index 0bf4fcd969c8..65cc612046d1 100644
--- a/kernel/time/posix-cpu-timers.c
+++ b/kernel/time/posix-cpu-timers.c
@@ -1600,8 +1600,8 @@ static int do_cpu_nanosleep(const clockid_t which_clock, int flags,
*/
expires = cpu_timer_getexpires(&timer.it.cpu);
error = posix_cpu_timer_set(&timer, 0, &zero_it, &it);
- if (!error) {
- /* Timer is now unarmed, deletion can not fail. */
+ if (error != TIMER_RETRY) {
+ /* Unarmed or target gone (-ESRCH), deletion can not fail. */
posix_cpu_timer_del(&timer);
} else {
while (error == TIMER_RETRY) {
--
2.55.0