CVE-2026-22976 net/sched: sch_qfq: Fix NULL deref when deactivating inactive aggregate in qfq_reset
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net/sched: sch_qfq: Fix NULL deref when deactivating inactive aggregate in qfq_reset

`qfq_class->leaf_qdisc->q.qlen > 0` does not imply that the class
itself is active.

Two qfq_class objects may point to the same leaf_qdisc. This happens
when:

1. one QFQ qdisc is attached to the dev as the root qdisc, and

2. another QFQ qdisc is temporarily referenced (e.g., via qdisc_get()
/ qdisc_put()) and is pending to be destroyed, as in function
tc_new_tfilter.

When packets are enqueued through the root QFQ qdisc, the shared
leaf_qdisc->q.qlen increases. At the same time, the second QFQ
qdisc triggers qdisc_put and qdisc_destroy: the qdisc enters
qfq_reset() with its own q->q.qlen == 0, but its class's leaf
qdisc->q.qlen > 0. Therefore, the qfq_reset would wrongly deactivate
an inactive aggregate and trigger a null-deref in qfq_deactivate_agg:

[    0.903172] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000
[    0.903571] #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode
[    0.903860] #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page
[    0.904177] PGD 10299b067 P4D 10299b067 PUD 10299c067 PMD 0
[    0.904502] Oops: Oops: 0002 [#1] SMP NOPTI
[    0.904737] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 135 Comm: exploit Not tainted 6.19.0-rc3+ #2 NONE
[    0.905157] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.17.0-0-gb52ca86e094d-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
[    0.905754] RIP: 0010:qfq_deactivate_agg (include/linux/list.h:992 (discriminator 2) include/linux/list.h:1006 (discriminator 2) net/sched/sch_qfq.c:1367 (discriminator 2) net/sched/sch_qfq.c:1393 (discriminator 2))
[    0.906046] Code: 0f 84 4d 01 00 00 48 89 70 18 8b 4b 10 48 c7 c2 ff ff ff ff 48 8b 78 08 48 d3 e2 48 21 f2 48 2b 13 48 8b 30 48 d3 ea 8b 4b 18 0

Code starting with the faulting instruction
===========================================
   0:	0f 84 4d 01 00 00    	je     0x153
   6:	48 89 70 18          	mov    %rsi,0x18(%rax)
   a:	8b 4b 10             	mov    0x10(%rbx),%ecx
   d:	48 c7 c2 ff ff ff ff 	mov    $0xffffffffffffffff,%rdx
  14:	48 8b 78 08          	mov    0x8(%rax),%rdi
  18:	48 d3 e2             	shl    %cl,%rdx
  1b:	48 21 f2             	and    %rsi,%rdx
  1e:	48 2b 13             	sub    (%rbx),%rdx
  21:	48 8b 30             	mov    (%rax),%rsi
  24:	48 d3 ea             	shr    %cl,%rdx
  27:	8b 4b 18             	mov    0x18(%rbx),%ecx
	...
[    0.907095] RSP: 0018:ffffc900004a39a0 EFLAGS: 00010246
[    0.907368] RAX: ffff8881043a0880 RBX: ffff888102953340 RCX: 0000000000000000
[    0.907723] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000000
[    0.908100] RBP: ffff888102952180 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
[    0.908451] R10: ffff8881043a0000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff888102952000
[    0.908804] R13: ffff888102952180 R14: ffff8881043a0ad8 R15: ffff8881043a0880
[    0.909179] FS:  000000002a1a0380(0000) GS:ffff888196d8d000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[    0.909572] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[    0.909857] CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 0000000102993002 CR4: 0000000000772ef0
[    0.910247] PKRU: 55555554
[    0.910391] Call Trace:
[    0.910527]  <TASK>
[    0.910638]  qfq_reset_qdisc (net/sched/sch_qfq.c:357 net/sched/sch_qfq.c:1485)
[    0.910826]  qdisc_reset (include/linux/skbuff.h:2195 include/linux/skbuff.h:2501 include/linux/skbuff.h:3424 include/linux/skbuff.h:3430 net/sched/sch_generic.c:1036)
[    0.911040]  __qdisc_destroy (net/sched/sch_generic.c:1076)
[    0.911236]  tc_new_tfilter (net/sched/cls_api.c:2447)
[    0.911447]  rtnetlink_rcv_msg (net/core/rtnetlink.c:6958)
[    0.911663]  ? __pfx_rtnetlink_rcv_msg (net/core/rtnetlink.c:6861)
[    0.911894]  netlink_rcv_skb (net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2550)
[    0.912100]  netlink_unicast (net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1319 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1344)
[    0.912296]  ? __alloc_skb (net/core/skbuff.c:706)
[    0.912484]  netlink_sendmsg (net/netlink/af
---truncated---
Affected products: vendor: Linux
product: Linux
default_status: unaffected
vendor: Linux
product: Linux
default_status: affected
Published: 2026-01-21T06:57:23.939Z