CVE-2026-98610 — net/sched: sch_hfsc: bound the classify inner-filter walk with a drift budget

Affected: Linux

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…

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CVE-2026-98610 — net/sched: sch_hfsc: bound the classify inner-filter walk with a drift budget