net/sched: Fix backlog accounting in qdisc_dequeue_internal

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: Fix backlog accounting in qdisc_dequeue_internal This issue applies for the following qdiscs: hhf, fq, fq_codel, and fq_pie, and occurs in their change handlers when adjusting to the new limit. The problem is the following in the values passed to the subsequent qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog call given a tbf parent: When the tbf parent runs out of tokens, skbs of these qdiscs will be placed in gso_skb. Their peek handlers are qdisc_peek_dequeued, which accounts for both qlen and backlog. However, in the case of qdisc_dequeue_internal, ONLY qlen is accounted for when pulling from gso_skb. This means that these qdiscs are missing a qdisc_qstats_backlog_dec when dropping packets to satisfy the new limit in their change handlers. One can observe this issue with the following (with tc patched to support a limit of 0): export TARGET=fq tc qdisc del dev lo root tc qdisc add dev lo root handle 1: tbf rate 8bit burst 100b latency 1ms tc qdisc replace dev lo handle 3: parent 1:1 $TARGET limit 1000 echo ''; echo 'add child'; tc -s -d qdisc show dev lo ping -I lo -f -c2 -s32 -W0.001 127.0.0.1 2>&1 >/dev/null echo ''; echo 'after ping'; tc -s -d qdisc show dev lo tc qdisc change dev lo handle 3: parent 1:1 $TARGET limit 0 echo ''; echo 'after limit drop'; tc -s -d qdisc show dev lo tc qdisc replace dev lo handle 2: parent 1:1 sfq echo ''; echo 'post graft'; tc -s -d qdisc show dev lo The second to last show command shows 0 packets but a positive number (74) of backlog bytes. The problem becomes clearer in the last show command, where qdisc_purge_queue triggers qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog with the positive backlog and causes an underflow in the tbf parent's backlog (4096 Mb instead of 0). To fix this issue, the codepath for all clients of qdisc_dequeue_internal has been simplified: codel, pie, hhf, fq, fq_pie, and fq_codel. qdisc_dequeue_internal handles the backlog adjustments for all cases that do not directly use the dequeue handler. The old fq_codel_change limit adjustment loop accumulated the arguments to the subsequent qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog call through the cstats field. However, this is confusing and error prone as fq_codel_dequeue could also potentially mutate this field (which qdisc_dequeue_internal calls in the non gso_skb case), so we have unified the code here with other qdiscs.

Timeline

Scores

EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)

0.21% · top 88% of all CVEs (11 Nov 2026)

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total

The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.8.

Affected products

• Linux · Linux

  • affected 4b549a2ef4bef9965d97cbd992ba67930cd3e0fe – < 65d1b5d84a0d697e9cfcdd0e07aad1bf1cb96295
  • affected 4b549a2ef4bef9965d97cbd992ba67930cd3e0fe – < dcfed7251e23cd71d32c4ecc444ff97992087e46
  • affected 4b549a2ef4bef9965d97cbd992ba67930cd3e0fe – < 38cdf8d1f5f3ee133f6e48dd422df4057fa9bfcb
  • affected 4b549a2ef4bef9965d97cbd992ba67930cd3e0fe – < a225f44d84b8900d679c5f5a9ea46fe9c0cc7802
  • affected 4b549a2ef4bef9965d97cbd992ba67930cd3e0fe – < 52bf272636bda69587952b35ae97690b8dc89941

• Linux · Linux

  • affected 3.5
  • unaffected < 3.5
  • unaffected 6.1.191 – ≤ 6.1.*
  • unaffected 6.6.160 – ≤ 6.6.*
  • unaffected 6.12.114 – ≤ 6.12.*
  • unaffected 6.16.4 – ≤ 6.16.*
  • unaffected 6.17 – ≤ *

Sources

The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.

• CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
• CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
• NVD (opens in a new tab)
• FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
• EUVD EUVD-2025-31547 (opens in a new tab)
• OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
• GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
• CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)

Badge for a README or a ticket

[![CVE-2025-39677](https://cveledger.app/badge/CVE-2025-39677.svg)](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2025-39677)

Record last updated 30 Oct 2026, 12:22 UTC.