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CVE-2025-39677 Not scored

net/sched: Fix backlog accounting in qdisc_dequeue_internal

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.

Exploit probability 0.1%
Published September 5, 2025
Required by Not available
Last source change July 15, 2026

02 / AFFECTED SOFTWARE

Affected packages

Linux Kernel
Unknown Unknown

03 / CONNECTIONS

Connected vulnerabilities

related CGA-Q477-H3JF-7X98
related OPENSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:03600-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:03601-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:03614-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:03633-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:03634-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:20851-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:20861-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:20870-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:20898-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:21074-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:21179-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:3725-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:3751-1

04 / EVIDENCE

Source records

Open Source Vulnerabilities CVE-2025-39677

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.

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05 / REFERENCES

Further evidence