Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sch_htb: make htb_deactivate() idempotent Alan reported a NULL pointer dereference in htb_next_rb_node() after we made htb_qlen_notify() idempotent. It turns out in the following case it introduced some regression: htb_dequeue_tree(): |-> fq_codel_dequeue() |-> qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog() |-> htb_qlen_notify() |-> htb_deactivate() |-> htb_next_rb_node() |-> htb_deactivate() For htb_next_rb_node(), after calling the 1st htb_deactivate(), the clprio[prio]->ptr could be already set to NULL, which means htb_next_rb_node() is vulnerable here. For htb_deactivate(), although we checked qlen before calling it, in case of qlen==0 after qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog(), we may call it again which triggers the warning inside. To fix the issues here, we need to: 1) Make htb_deactivate() idempotent, that is, simply return if we already call it before. 2) Make htb_next_rb_node() safe against ptr==NULL. Many thanks to Alan for testing and for the reproducer.

Severity MEDIUM

CVSS Score 5.5

CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CWE CWE-476

Public Exploit ✅ No

Source NVD

Published 2025-05-20

Updated 2026-06-02

Modified 2025-12-17

Fix URL https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/31ff70ad39485698cf779f2078132d80b57f6c07

Software	From version	Fixed in
debian-linux	—	—
linux-kernel	—	—