virtio_balloon: quiesce balloon work before device shutdown
CVE-2026-90129 is fixed in 20 products on 1 platform, first by DEBIAN-CVE-2026-90129, released September 23, 2026. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: High.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: virtio_balloon: quiesce balloon work before device shutdown Commit 8bd2fa086a04 ("virtio: break and reset virtio devices on device_shutdown()") added a generic virtio bus .shutdown handler that breaks and resets every virtio device during device_shutdown(), i.e. on reboot and kexec. virtio_balloon provides no .shutdown of its own, so that generic path runs while the balloon's asynchronous work is still armed. Once the device has been broken, virtqueue_add_inbuf() in virtballoon_free_page_report() returns -EIO and trips its WARN_ON_ONCE(). On a kernel booted with panic_on_warn that turns an ordinary reboot, for example a kexec based upgrade, into a fatal panic in the middle of device_shutdown(), so the machine never reaches the new kernel. Relaxing that single WARN_ON_ONCE() would only hide the symptom: the inflate/deflate and OOM paths do not warn, they call wait_event(vb->acked, ...) and would instead block forever on a broken queue that can no longer complete. The device has to be quiesced, not just kept quiet. Add a .shutdown handler that quiesces the balloon via the shared virtballoon_quiesce() helper while the device is still alive, and only then breaks and resets it via virtio_device_shutdown(). Unlike virtballoon_remove() the balloon workqueue is not destroyed, as shutdown does not free the device and cancel_work_sync() together with stop_update already prevent any further work from being queued.
Where it's fixed
| Product | Fixed in | Fix | Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | |||
| bpftool6.18 · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| bpftool6.18-debuginfo · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| kernel-livepatch-6.18.54-121.166 · amzn 2023 | 1:1.0-0.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| kernel6.18 · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| kernel6.18-debuginfo · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| kernel6.18-debuginfo-common-aarch64 · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| kernel6.18-debuginfo-common-x86_64 · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| kernel6.18-devel · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| kernel6.18-headers · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| kernel6.18-modules-extra · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| kernel6.18-modules-extra-common · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| kernel6.18-tools · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| kernel6.18-tools-debuginfo · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| kernel6.18-tools-devel · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| linux · Debian 14 | 7.2.6-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-90129 | Sep 23, 2026 |
| microvm-kernel6.18 · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| perf6.18 · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| perf6.18-debuginfo · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| python3-perf6.18 · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| python3-perf6.18-debuginfo · amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.54-121.166.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2026-3192 | Nov 7, 2026 |
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