CVE-2026-99176
Low risk· EPSS 9%Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk9th percentile - higher than 9% of all known CVEs
Summary
A flaw was fixed in the Linux kernel KVM (nVMX) where failure to load L2 state in the non-VM-Entry case (RSM emulation or KVM_SET_NESTED_STATE) left the vCPU's MMU pointer pointing at the nested MMU. This caused KVM to try running L1 with a nested MMU, leading to a NULL pointer dereference when the nested state was freed and KVM attempted to get the L1=>L2 EPTP.
Risk Assessment
A local attacker able to interact with KVM could trigger a kernel crash (NULL pointer dereference), causing denial of service or potentially privilege escalation in kernel context.
Recommendation
Update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix (commit described in the CVE). If updating is not possible, restrict access to KVM interfaces (e.g., /dev/kvm) to trusted users.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
See all- CVE-2026-43603Medium
A NULL pointer dereference in the Linux GPU driver could potentially lead to a kernel crash. This may result in a denial of service on the affected system.
- CVE-2026-99270High
A use-after-free (UAF) vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel's reqsk_timer_handler() function. When TCP socket migration fails at inet_ehash_insert(), the code jumps to the no_ownership label and immediately frees the new reqsk via __reqsk_free() without stopping its timer, potentially leading to a UAF.
- CVE-2026-99269High
In the Linux kernel sched_ext scheduler, a task can be found on a non-local DSQ while the CPU that dispatched it is still running ops.dequeue() and hasn't cleared SCX_OPSS_DISPATCHING. The DSQ consume and move paths don't wait for dispatch to finish and can operate on the task concurrently with the dispatcher. The fix adds scx_wait_dispatching() before operating on the task.
- CVE-2026-99268Unknown
In io_uring with IORING_SETUP_DEFER_TASKRUN, completions are queued as local work and only become CQEs when the submitter enters the kernel to wait for events. io_uring_poll() reports EPOLLIN if local work is pending, but only if the work exists at call time; after DEFER_TASKRUN was added, the ->poll_wq wakeup was replaced by directly waking the submitter, so poll() can sleep despite pending work. The fix wakes ->poll_wq when the first entry is put on the work list, using an RCU callback when needed.
- CVE-2026-99267Unknown
In io_uring NAPI with dynamic tracking, a NAPI id not seen for a minute should be dropped from the ring's busy-poll list. However, the timeout is computed incorrectly — SEC_CONVERSION is used instead of the number of jiffies per second, giving about eight years for HZ=1000 and overflowing on 32-bit systems. As a result, entries are never removed and every wait polls all historical ids.
- CVE-2026-99266Unknown
In io_uring zcrx, io_zcrx_queue_cqe() computes the buffer offset in its area from net_iov_idx(), which is an unsigned int, so the shift is done in 32 bits and only the result is widened to the u64 placed in the CQE. An area can be up to 1 TB, so for every niov beyond the first 4 GB the CQE points the application at a buffer 4 GB (or a multiple) below the correct one. The application reads wrong data and returns a buffer it doesn't own via the refill queue while the real one is never given back.
- CVE-2026-99265Unknown
In io_uring/openclose, io_pipe_fixed() installs both ends of the pipe in the fixed file table, drops ->uring_lock, and copies the slot numbers to the application. If that faults, it takes the lock again and removes whatever is in these slots. If the request is run by io-wq, the lock really is dropped and the slots are visible to others; by the time the error path gets to them, they may have been closed and reused (by IORING_OP_CLOSE, direct open/accept, or IORING_REGISTER_FILES_UPDATE), causing removal of a file unrelated to the failed request. The fix performs the copy with the lock held.
- CVE-2026-99264High
A bug was fixed in the Linux kernel's io_uring/net handling of recv retries on uncommitted buffers. When a receive was retried after a partial transfer, the kernel could hand out buffer memory that the retried request was still writing to, causing data overwrites. The request is now completed with the bytes received instead of retried, and MSG_WAITALL is no longer honoured for incremental buffers or multi-buffer bundles.
- CVE-2026-99263Unknown
In io_uring/poll, if a wakeup sets IO_POLL_RETRY_FLAG between the owning task consuming the existing instance of IO_POLL_RETRY_FLAG and the loop check in io_poll_check_events(), request processing stalls until an unrelated wakeup arrives. The fix uses atomic_cmpxchg instead of atomic_sub_return to guarantee both the count v and poll_refs are 0 and no wakeups are missed.
- CVE-2026-99262Unknown
In io_uring/timeout, an IORING_OP_TIMEOUT run by io-wq due to IOSQE_ASYNC has the same problem as poll, futex, and waitid. io_wq_submit_work() checks IO_WQ_WORK_CANCEL only once before issuing the request; a cancel in between flags the work, gets -EALREADY, and searches ->timeout_list in vain while the worker adds the request and starts the timer. Nobody checks the flag again and the timeout runs its course, and at ring exit a task can get stuck for the full duration. The fix checks the flag under ->timeout_lock and fails the request if set.
Original NVD description (English source)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: nVMX: Reset MMU back to the root MMU if loading L2 state fails for !VM-Entry Reset the vCPU's MMU pointer back to the root MMU if loading L2 state fails in the "not from VM-Entry" case, i.e. when emulating RSM or handling KVM_SET_NESTED_STATE. Failure to unwind the MMU pointer results in KVM trying to run L1 with a nested MMU, and is especially problematic if the vCPU manages to free its nested state before the VM crashes. Constructing the root for a nested EPT MMU goes through vmcs12, which is dynamically allocated/freed when nVMX is enabled/disabled. And so if the nested state is freed with the MMU still pointing at the nested MMU, KVM will hit a NULL pointer deref when attempting to get L1=>L2 EPTP. BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000078 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 114a2d067 P4D 111743067 PUD 11141f067 PMD 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP CPU: 20 UID: 1000 PID: 1272 Comm: nested_tdp_faul Not tainted 7.3.0-rc4-8c89f11d1a99b-sink-vm #1914 PREEMPTLAZY Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015 RIP: 0010:nested_ept_get_eptp+0xb/0x10 [kvm_intel] Call Trace: <TASK> kvm_mmu_load+0xcd/0x870 [kvm] kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x18f5/0x1f80 [kvm] kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x2c7/0x970 [kvm] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x90/0xd0 do_syscall_64+0x9c/0x4d0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 RIP: 0033:0x47491b </TASK> Modules linked in: kvm_intel kvm irqbypass CR2: 0000000000000078 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- RIP: 0010:nested_ept_get_eptp+0xb/0x10 [kvm_intel] [sean: write changelog]
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS

