[PATCH] reboot: use make_task_dead for the halt and power off fallback
From: Bradley Morgan
Date: Mon Jul 13 2026 - 02:23:51 EST
The reboot syscall calls do_exit(0) after kernel_halt() or
kernel_power_off(). Those are expected to stop the machine and not
return. When they do return, the shutdown path has already disabled
interrupts and torn down state, and do_exit() then hits its
WARN_ON(irqs_disabled()).
That is an error path, not a clean exit. Use make_task_dead() instead
of do_exit(0): it is built for this, fixes up the irqs disabled and
preempt state, and bounds repeated failure via oops_limit. This
matches the make_task_dead pattern that exit.c already uses for the
oops path.
Splat from syzbot:
ACPI: PM: Preparing to enter system sleep state S5
kvm: exiting hardware virtualization
reboot: Power down
------------[ cut here ]------------
irqs_disabled()
WARNING: kernel/exit.c:930 at do_exit+0x1cf7/0x2ae0 kernel/exit.c:930, CPU#0: init/6193
Tainted: [L]=SOFTLOCKUP
Call Trace:
<TASK>
__do_sys_reboot+0x36e/0x400 kernel/reboot.c:784
do_syscall_64+0x115/0x840 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
</TASK>
Fixes: 001c28e57187 ("exit: Detect and fix irq disabled state in oops")
Reported-by: syzbot+8fdf0d8e10bdde1c2e88@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Closes: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=8fdf0d8e10bdde1c2e88
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Bradley Morgan <include@xxxxxxxxx>
---
kernel/reboot.c | 7 +++++--
1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
Changes since v1: v1 enabled IRQs and kept do_exit, fixing the
symptom. Eric Biederman pointed out the real fix is to treat the
returned halt or power off as the error path it is, and call
make_task_dead instead.
diff --git a/kernel/reboot.c b/kernel/reboot.c
index bed6967bfa96..c10ac6a0200d 100644
--- a/kernel/reboot.c
+++ b/kernel/reboot.c
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
#include <linux/kmod.h>
#include <linux/kmsg_dump.h>
#include <linux/reboot.h>
+#include <linux/sched/task.h>
#include <linux/suspend.h>
#include <linux/syscalls.h>
#include <linux/syscore_ops.h>
@@ -777,11 +778,13 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE4(reboot, int, magic1, int, magic2, unsigned int, cmd,
case LINUX_REBOOT_CMD_HALT:
kernel_halt();
- do_exit(0);
+ /* machine_halt() was expected to not return. */
+ make_task_dead(SIGKILL);
case LINUX_REBOOT_CMD_POWER_OFF:
kernel_power_off();
- do_exit(0);
+ /* machine_power_off() was expected to not return. */
+ make_task_dead(SIGKILL);
break;
case LINUX_REBOOT_CMD_RESTART2:
--
2.53.0