CVE-2026-97905In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
cpufreq: zero-initialize policy cpumask before sysfs publication
cpufreq_policy_alloc() allocates policy->cpus with alloc_cpumask_var(),
i.e. without __GFP_ZERO, unlike the sibling related_cpus and real_cpus
masks. With CONFIG_CPUMASK_OFFSTACK=y the mask is a separate
kmalloc_node() allocation, so its bitmap holds whatever the slab allocator
left behind:
cpufreq_online()
cpufreq_policy_alloc()
alloc_cpumask_var(&policy->cpus) /* bitmap is uninitialized */
kobject_init_and_add() /* policy%u/ appears in sysfs */
cpufreq_policy_online()
cpumask_copy(policy->cpus, cpumask_of(cpu)) /* first valid value */
This leaves a window in which the sysfs attributes are already reachable
while policy->cpus is still garbage. show()/store() gate on
policy_is_inactive(), i.e. cpumask_empty(policy->cpus), so a non-zero
bitmap makes them run the attribute callbacks on a policy that is not
initialized yet.
Fix this by using zalloc_cpumask_var() for policy->cpus.