CVE Intelligence
Medium

CVE-2026-23113 — io_uring/io-wq: check IO_WQ_BIT_EXIT inside work run loop

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: io_uring/io-wq: check IO_WQ_BIT_EXIT inside work run loop Currently this is checked before running the pending work. Normally this is quite fine, as work items either end up blocking (which will create a new worker for other items), or they complete fairly quickly. But syzbot reports an issue where io-wq takes seemingly forever to exit, and with a bit of debugging, this turns out to be because it queues a bunch of big (2GB - 4096b) reads with a /dev/msr* file. Since this file type doesn't support ->read_iter(), loop_rw_iter() ends up handling them. Each read returns 16MB of data read, which takes 20 (!!) seconds. With a bunch of these pending, processing the whole chain can take a long time. Easily longer than the syzbot uninterruptible sleep timeout of 140 seconds. This then triggers a complaint off the io-wq exit path: INFO: task syz.4.135:6326 blocked for more than 143 seconds. Not tainted syzkaller #0 Blocked by coredump. "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message. task:syz.4.135 state:D stack:26824 pid:6326 tgid:6324 ppid:5957 task_flags:0x400548 flags:0x00080000 Call Trace: <TASK> context_switch kernel/sched/core.c:5256 [inline] __schedule+0x1139/0x6150 kernel/sched/core.c:6863 __schedule_loop kernel/sched/core.c:6945 [inline] schedule+0xe7/0x3a0 kernel/sched/core.c:6960 schedule_timeout+0x257/0x290 kernel/time/sleep_timeout.c:75 do_wait_for_common kernel/sched/completion.c:100 [inline] __wait_for_common+0x2fc/0x4e0 kernel/sched/completion.c:121 io_wq_exit_workers io_uring/io-wq.c:1328 [inline] io_wq_put_and_exit+0x271/0x8a0 io_uring/io-wq.c:1356 io_uring_clean_tctx+0x10d/0x190 io_uring/tctx.c:203 io_uring_cancel_generic+0x69c/0x9a0 io_uring/cancel.c:651 io_uring_files_cancel include/linux/io_uring.h:19 [inline] do_exit+0x2ce/0x2bd0 kernel/exit.c:911 do_group_exit+0xd3/0x2a0 kernel/exit.c:1112 get_signal+0x2671/0x26d0 kernel/signal.c:3034 arch_do_signal_or_restart+0x8f/0x7e0 arch/x86/kernel/signal.c:337 __exit_to_user_mode_loop kernel/entry/common.c:41 [inline] exit_to_user_mode_loop+0x8c/0x540 kernel/entry/common.c:75 __exit_to_user_mode_prepare include/linux/irq-entry-common.h:226 [inline] syscall_exit_to_user_mode_prepare include/linux/irq-entry-common.h:256 [inline] syscall_exit_to_user_mode_work include/linux/entry-common.h:159 [inline] syscall_exit_to_user_mode include/linux/entry-common.h:194 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x4ee/0xf80 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:100 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7fa02738f749 RSP: 002b:00007fa0281ae0e8 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 00000000000000ca RAX: fffffffffffffe00 RBX: 00007fa0275e6098 RCX: 00007fa02738f749 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000080 RDI: 00007fa0275e6098 RBP: 00007fa0275e6090 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 00007fa0275e6128 R14: 00007fff14e4fcb0 R15: 00007fff14e4fd98 There's really nothing wrong here, outside of processing these reads will take a LONG time. However, we can speed up the exit by checking the IO_WQ_BIT_EXIT inside the io_worker_handle_work() loop, as syzbot will exit the ring after queueing up all of these reads. Then once the first item is processed, io-wq will simply cancel the rest. That should avoid syzbot running into this complaint again.

Published Feb 14, 2026 · Updated Oct 14, 2026 · Sources: NIST National Vulnerability Database, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP, GitHub Security Advisories · CNA: Linux

Who exploits it and how urgent it is

A 0–100 score combining confirmed exploitation, ransomware and APT use, public exploits, EPSS and severity.

No exploitation signal in the sources consulted so far.
How the score was calculated
  • EPSS 0.1% (30-day exploitation probability)+0
  • Technical severity (medium)+3

The score orders the patch queue; it does not replace your asset context (internet exposure, criticality, compensating controls).

Triage

Is it exploited, how likely is exploitation, what does it touch, and how severe do the sources call it.

Exploitation
Not confirmed
Not in CISA KEV — an absence of record, not proof it is unexploited.
EPSS FIRST
0.13%
ahead of 3% of scored CVEs · Oct 14, 2026
Affects
Linux
Linux and 1 more
CVSS base
5.5
Medium · 2 source(s)

Remediation

Fixes and mitigations documented by the sources — linked to the original advisory.

  • Documented patch — git.kernel.org (NIST National Vulnerability Database)
  • Documented patch — git.kernel.org (NIST National Vulnerability Database)
  • Documented patch — git.kernel.org (NIST National Vulnerability Database)
  • Documented patch — git.kernel.org (NIST National Vulnerability Database)

First 24 hours

Ordered from the record’s own fields — exposure first, because you cannot patch what you have not found. A rule-generated starting point.

  1. Identify exposed assets running the affected vendor/product/version combinations (Linux Linux, Linux Linux Kernel).
  2. Apply the fixed version or the patch documented under Remediation.
  3. Search available logs for exploit probes, errors and authentication anomalies.

Affected scope

Vendor, product and versions as the sources word them.

VendorProductVersionsStatusSource
Linux Linux version 5.12≥ c60eb049f4a19ddddcd3ee97a9c79ab8066a6a03 and < 10dc959398175736e495f71c771f8641e1ca1907≥ c60eb049f4a19ddddcd3ee97a9c79ab8066a6a03 and < bdf0bf73006ea8af9327cdb85cfdff4c23a5f966≥ c60eb049f4a19ddddcd3ee97a9c79ab8066a6a03 and < 2e8ca1078b14142db2ce51cbd18ff9971560046b≥ c60eb049f4a19ddddcd3ee97a9c79ab8066a6a03 and < 85eb83694a91c89d9abe615d717c0053c3efa714≥ c60eb049f4a19ddddcd3ee97a9c79ab8066a6a03 and < d05d99573f81a091547b1778b9a50120f5d6c68a≥ c60eb049f4a19ddddcd3ee97a9c79ab8066a6a03 and < 27e47500fac23d15b7dc93ff650bc4844d2581bd Vulnerable CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
Linux Linux Kernel version 6.19-rc4version 6.19-rc6version 6.19-rc5≥ 5.12.1 and < 6.6.122version 6.19-rc3version 6.19-rc2version 6.19-rc1version 5.12-rc8
and 4 more version 5.12-rc7version 5.12≥ 6.13 and < 6.18.8≥ 6.7 and < 6.12.68
Vulnerable NIST National Vulnerability Database

Attack characteristics

The CVSS vector, decoded. It describes the attack, not your exposure to it.

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Every base score collected

Sources score independently and may disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.

ScoreVersionSeverityExpl.ImpactScored by
5.5 CVSS 3.1 Medium 1.8 3.6 nvd@nist.gov via NIST National Vulnerability Database
5.5 CVSS 3.1 Medium — — GitHub, Inc. via GitHub Security Advisories
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H (score shown at the top: nvd@nist.gov)

EPSS over time FIRST

Oct 13, 2026 → Oct 14, 2026 · 2 reading(s) · max 0.13%

Detection

Read off the CVSS vector and the weakness class. Starting points, not tested rules.

  • Local/physical vector: focus on endpoint telemetry (EDR) from affected hosts.
endpoint telemetry (EDR)

Timeline

What happened to this CVE, newest first.

  • 2026
  • Affected products added · linux/linux
    Oct 13, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • Record published
    Oct 13, 2026
  • Fix documented
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • CVSS changed · 5.5
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • Source status changed · → Modified
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • Record created in this database
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • CVE published
    Feb 14, 2026 · Linux

Source activity

Repeated readings are counted rather than listed.

  • 2× References added · Oct 14, 2026 – Oct 14, 2026
  • 1× Official description updated · Oct 13, 2026 – Oct 13, 2026

References

12 on the record

Elsewhere on this site

Linux
every CVE for this vendor

Related CVEs (same products)

  • Critical CVE-2026-99999 ipv4: validate checksum_start before completing checksum 8h
  • Unknown CVE-2026-98432 ipv4: free inet_opt and ireq_opt after an RCU grace period 8h
  • Unknown CVE-2026-98431 RDMA/uverbs: Fix mmap_lock/disassociation_lock circular dependency 1d
  • Unknown CVE-2026-98424 wifi: cfg80211: undo netns switch if renaming the wiphy fails 1d
  • Unknown CVE-2026-98425 wifi: mac80211: don't warn when an IBSS has no channel to scan 1d
  • Unknown CVE-2026-98426 wifi: mwifiex: fix IRQ leak using wrong index in MSI-X error path 1d

Not in any source we poll

Listed rather than left blank: an empty field and an unmeasured one look identical on screen, and only one is a reason to look elsewhere.

  • No CISA SSVC assessment.
  • No CWE classification.
  • No confirmed IOCs, IP addresses, domains, file hashes, or malware artifacts supplied.
  • No organization-specific asset inventory, compensating-control status, or patch deployment evidence supplied.
  • No exploit packet captures, log samples, or incident case IDs supplied.

Answered from this record

Text assembled only from the fields above — no additional claims.

What should defenders know first?

CVE-2026-23113 is "io_uring/io-wq: check IO_WQ_BIT_EXIT inside work run loop", rated Medium. It affects Linux (Linux); versions are in the scope table. It is not in CISA KEV, which does not rule out exploitation. CVSS 5.5 describes technical severity. EPSS 0.13% estimates the probability of exploitation in 30 days; neither replaces your asset context. First verify whether exposed or business-critical assets run the affected versions, apply vendor fixes or mitigations, and preserve logs for review.

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