CVE-2026-99256

dm cache: fix issue with background work locking

CVE-2026-99256 is fixed in linux on 1 platform, first by DEBIAN-CVE-2026-99256, released November 3, 2026. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: Routine.

Routine
CVSS
2.3
Low
Exploitation
None reported
No vendor assessment
CISA KEV
Not listed
Not in the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
EPSS
0.0020
10th percentile

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dm cache: fix issue with background work locking dm cache used a rw_semaphore for background_work_lock. Write locks on rw_semaphores have strict owner semantics, but there was no guarantee that the process that locked background_work_lock was the same process that unlocked it. This can be easily seen using a kernel compiled with CONFIG_DEBUG_RWSEMS. Given a dm cache device <cache>, run: 'dmsetup suspend <cache> && dmsetup resume <cache>'. This will trigger a kernel warning: DEBUG_RWSEMS_WARN_ON((rwsem_owner(sem) != current) && !rwsem_test_oflags(sem, RWSEM_NONSPINNABLE)) triggered by cache_resume(). To fix this, switch from a rw_semaphore to a spinlock and a wait queue. dm cache already has a wait queue and associated counter, migration_wait and nr_allocated_migrations, that was getting woken up when background work was getting completed, but wasn't actually used by anything. This is replaced by the background_work queue and counter.

Where it's fixed

ProductFixed inFixReleased
Linux
linux · Debian 13.5 (trixie) 6.12.115-1 DEBIAN-CVE-2026-99256 Nov 3, 2026
linux · Debian 14 7.2.13-1 DEBIAN-CVE-2026-99256 Nov 3, 2026

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