[PATCH 3/4] sched_ext: Skip sub-disable teardown for never-linked sub-schedulers
From: Tejun Heo
Date: Thu Jul 16 2026 - 17:32:17 EST
A sub-scheduler enable can fail before scx_link_sched() links the sched into
the hierarchy, e.g. when the parent is already being disabled, and cleanup
still runs the full scx_sub_disable().
That is racy against root disable: drain_descendants() is the only ordering
between a sub's disable-time task walk and root disable's all-task teardown,
and an unlinked sub is invisible to it. Root's teardown can thus run between
the never-linked sub's drain and its walk, exiting every task to no
scheduler.
The walk then trips the membership WARN and re-homes the exited tasks onto
the dying hierarchy, a use-after-free.
Skip the cgroup ownership reset and the task walk if @sch was never linked,
indicated by the empty ->sibling as unlinking only happens later in the same
function. The membership WARN remains valid: a linked sub is always waited
on by an ancestor's drain.
Fixes: 337ec00b1d9c ("sched_ext: Implement cgroup sub-sched enabling and disabling")
Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
kernel/sched/ext/ext.c | 14 ++++++++++++--
1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/kernel/sched/ext/ext.c b/kernel/sched/ext/ext.c
index 58898cd0727b..98dd7df88db4 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/ext/ext.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/ext/ext.c
@@ -5937,6 +5937,15 @@ static void scx_sub_disable(struct scx_sched *sch)
percpu_down_write(&scx_fork_rwsem);
scx_cgroup_lock();
+ /*
+ * An enable that failed before scx_link_sched() never owned a cgroup or
+ * task and won't be waited on by an ancestor's drain_descendants().
+ * Nothing to reparent and walking the tasks can misbehave as the task
+ * ownership invariant (either owned by self or parent) does not hold.
+ */
+ if (list_empty(&sch->sibling))
+ goto dump;
+
set_cgroup_sched(sch_cgroup(sch), parent);
scx_task_iter_start(&sti, sch->cgrp);
@@ -5949,8 +5958,8 @@ static void scx_sub_disable(struct scx_sched *sch)
continue;
/*
- * By the time control reaches here, all descendant schedulers
- * should already have been disabled.
+ * By the time control reaches here, all linked descendant
+ * schedulers should have been disabled.
*/
WARN_ON_ONCE(!scx_task_on_sched(sch, p));
@@ -6017,6 +6026,7 @@ static void scx_sub_disable(struct scx_sched *sch)
}
scx_task_iter_stop(&sti);
+dump:
scx_disable_dump(sch);
scx_cgroup_unlock();
--
2.55.0