This vulnerability is present in the Linux kernel’s fair scheduler. When a task is forked, the scheduler fails to clear the rel_deadline field of the new sched_entity. The stale relative deadline is subsequently interpreted as an absolute deadline during the first enqueue, producing a value far beyond the range of valid deadlines. On a later sched_yield call the scheduler advances the virtual run time to this inflated deadline, causing key calculations in the Completely Fair Scheduler to overflow. The overflow corrupts data structures, eventually causing pick_next_entity() to return NULL and the kernel to dereference a NULL pointer, leading to a kernel panic. The primary impact is a denial‑of‑service in that the host will crash when a forked task that yields is scheduled.

The flaw resides in the Linux kernel and therefore affects all distributions that ship the Linux kernel without the pending patch. No specific kernel version is supplied, so any currently running kernel is potentially vulnerable until the fix is applied.

The exploit is local: it only requires an attacker who can fork a process and trigger sched_yield. No network or remote code execution vector is described. The EPSS score is not available and the vulnerability is not listed in CISA’s KEV catalog. Because the kernel crash is deterministic once the conditions are met, an attacker who controls user‑space code on the host can reliably induce a reboot. The CVSS score is not provided, but the impact level is considered high due to the systemic crash.