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NVD / CVE Program· CNA Linux

CVE-2026-97988: vhost: invalidate vring access on IOTLB transitions

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 0/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.16% (FIRST EPSS).
  • Fixed version: Linux Linux 021bf73731f7aa94540a549cf850db5968019960, 4a454af8e56c1596ada1421ae5eba90c8896c7c7, 7f8ee0b8f632441aec456a7c147fb43f5c73542d; azl3 kernel 6.6.157.1-1 on Azure Linux 3.0 Release Notes; azl3 kernel 6.6.159.1-1 on Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.161.1-1.
  • Mentioned 1 time in Turkish national cyber security advisories (siberguvenlik.gov.tr).

Low priority for now. Upgrade to Linux Linux 021bf73731f7aa94540a549cf850db5968019960, 4a454af8e56c1596ada1421ae5eba90c8896c7c7, 7f8ee0b8f632441aec456a7c147fb43f5c73542d; azl3 kernel 6.6.157.1-1 on Azure Linux 3.0 Release Notes; azl3 kernel 6.6.159.1-1 on Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.161.1-1 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vhost: invalidate vring access on IOTLB transitions When VIRTIO_F_ACCESS_PLATFORM changes, cached vring pointers and IOTLB metadata are interpreted in a different address space. Keeping them across the transition can leave stale ring mappings in use. Clearing d->iotlb before taking the VQ locks also lets a worker observe a transient NULL d->iotlb and fall back to d->umem while translating a descriptor. Add a common vhost_clear_device_iotlb() helper for vhost-net and vhost-vsock. Take all VQ mutexes in index order before dropping the device-wide IOTLB, invalidate each VQ's cached ring access and metadata, clear pending IOTLB messages, and free the old table after the handoff. This serializes the transition with workers and prevents mixed address space mappings. On the first direct-to-IOTLB transition, invalidate the cached vring addresses. When an existing device IOTLB is replaced, preserve the GIOVA ring addresses and reset only the metadata cache. After clearing ACCESS_PLATFORM, userspace must configure the vring addresses for the new address mode. vhost_vq_invalidate_access() clears desc, avail, and used together. Treat the VQ as invalidated only when all three are NULL, since a single GIOVA address may legitimately be zero.

—No exploit Fix available
Published
Sep 25, 2026
Updated
Oct 21, 2026
EPSS
0.1% · 6th percentile
CWE
—

Report tools

JSON

Action score

0

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
0 / 40 · —
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.1%

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  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
  • No public exploit code on record
  • A fix has been released

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

—

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (Linux). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • Linux Linux

    • 4.8affected
    • 6b1e6cc7855b09a0a9bfa1d9f30172ba366f161c and later · before 021bf73731f7aa94540a549cf850db5968019960affected · git
    • 6b1e6cc7855b09a0a9bfa1d9f30172ba366f161c and later · before e8fe13c14d57cc7c6bd69c72c5fabaaf0d918f98affected · git
    • 6b1e6cc7855b09a0a9bfa1d9f30172ba366f161c and later · before 7f8ee0b8f632441aec456a7c147fb43f5c73542daffected · git
    • 6b1e6cc7855b09a0a9bfa1d9f30172ba366f161c and later · before 4a454af8e56c1596ada1421ae5eba90c8896c7c7affected · git
    • 6b1e6cc7855b09a0a9bfa1d9f30172ba366f161c and later · before e4f4761879a230aa59e569102a6ab9851847d833affected · git
    • before 4.8not affected · semver
    • 6.6.160 and later · up to and including 6.6.*not affected · semver
    • 6.12.114 and later · up to and including 6.12.*not affected · semver
    • 6.18.57 and later · up to and including 6.18.*not affected · semver

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
Debian:12linuxfrom 0—
Debian:13linuxbefore 6.12.115-26.12.115-2
Debian:14linuxbefore 7.2.7-17.2.7-1

Same product

linux: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2026-74705udp: fix potential use-after-free in tunnel segmentation
    40Plan
  • CVE-2026-74612veth: fix skb length accounting after XDP frag adjustment
    40Plan
  • CVE-2026-74475vxlan: use neigh_ha_snapshot() in route_shortcircuit()
    40Plan

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2026-97986Sep 25, 2026 · virtio_input: stop callbacks before unregistering input device
    0Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2026-97987Sep 25, 2026 · virtio_input: reset device if input_register_device() fails
    0Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2026-97989Sep 25, 2026 · vduse: validate virtqueue alignment
    0Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
Linux Linux021bf73731f7aa94540a549cf850db5968019960Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linux4a454af8e56c1596ada1421ae5eba90c8896c7c7Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linux7f8ee0b8f632441aec456a7c147fb43f5c73542dVendor (CNA)
Linux Linuxe4f4761879a230aa59e569102a6ab9851847d833Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linuxe8fe13c14d57cc7c6bd69c72c5fabaaf0d918f98Vendor (CNA)
azl3 kernel 6.6.157.1-1 on Azure Linux 3.0Release NotesMicrosoft (MSRC)
azl3 kernel 6.6.159.1-1 on Azure Linux 3.06.6.161.1-1 · Release NotesMicrosoft (MSRC)
debian:linux6.12.115-2 · Debian:13Package registry (OSV)
debian:linux7.2.7-1 · Debian:14Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

National notice (Türkiye Cybersecurity Directorate / USOM)

Official security notices citing this record; remediation advice is on the agency's page.

All national notices →

Technical details

No CVSS vector for this record, so attack conditions can't be derived.

Weakness class (CWE)

—

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.

Change log

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

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References

Show all references (4 more)

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records