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CVE.org (no NVD analysis yet)· CNA Linux

CVE-2026-98717: KVM: x86/mmu: Bail from shadow walks if the root is invalid or a dummy

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: 0.20% (FIRST EPSS).
  • Fixed version: Linux Linux 681e31f03ec9219099a66a0f6e1bc48e1b5aa914, 951fce1510645ba5df38da6fb85ece5726ec347d, 97c1dcce17ef27853860c781f9912257e6adbf7c; 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.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to Linux Linux 681e31f03ec9219099a66a0f6e1bc48e1b5aa914, 951fce1510645ba5df38da6fb85ece5726ec347d, 97c1dcce17ef27853860c781f9912257e6adbf7c; 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: KVM: x86/mmu: Bail from shadow walks if the root is invalid or a dummy When walking shadow page tables, immediately terminate the walk if the root is a "dummy" root, i.e. a root whose top-level page table is backed by the zero page, but otherwise doesn't exist. If memslot creation races with a stage-2 page fault (EPT violation or #NPF) from L2, then if the stars align, KVM will attempt to walk shadow page tables using the zero page and hit a NULL pointer deref. BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000021 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP CPU: 30 UID: 1000 PID: 941 Comm: qemu Not tainted 7.2.0-rc2-1b731e5ded48-next-vm #1741 PREEMPTLAZY Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015 RIP: 0010:__kvm_mmu_invalidate_addr+0xea/0x210 [kvm] Call Trace: <TASK> kvm_mmu_invalidate_addr+0x92/0xe0 [kvm] __kvm_inject_emulated_page_fault+0x67/0x80 [kvm] ept_page_fault+0x160/0x850 [kvm] kvm_mmu_do_page_fault+0x102/0x1f0 [kvm] kvm_mmu_page_fault+0x8e/0x6b0 [kvm] vmx_handle_exit+0x163/0x640 [kvm_intel] kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x960/0x2120 [kvm] kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x2c7/0x970 [kvm] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x90/0xd0 do_syscall_64+0x67/0x5f0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 RIP: 0033:0x7f606d0b53bb Opportunistically harden the shadow walks against fully invalid roots, but WARN, as all callers are expected/required to pre-check for a valid root. Don't WARN in the dummy root case as the whole point of using a dummy root is to provide a root that's valid enough to enter the guest, i.e. it should Just Work for all flows except those that *need* to know about dummy roots. Alternatively, KVM could allocate a dedicated page and associated shadow page structure for the dummy root, which is very tempting as it such an approach should be more resilient against unexpected behavior. But that would be a much larger and thus riskier change than simply terminating walks of dummy roots.

—No exploit Fix available
Published
Oct 18, 2026
Updated
Oct 21, 2026
EPSS
0.2% · 9th 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 · 0.2%

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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

    • 6.6affected
    • 0e3223d8d00ac05849661f1b8b476d3caca251cf and later · before 951fce1510645ba5df38da6fb85ece5726ec347daffected · git
    • 0e3223d8d00ac05849661f1b8b476d3caca251cf and later · before e1bcabc07efd029ab414894127411129ffdb8b48affected · git
    • 0e3223d8d00ac05849661f1b8b476d3caca251cf and later · before 97c1dcce17ef27853860c781f9912257e6adbf7caffected · git
    • 0e3223d8d00ac05849661f1b8b476d3caca251cf and later · before 681e31f03ec9219099a66a0f6e1bc48e1b5aa914affected · git
    • 0e3223d8d00ac05849661f1b8b476d3caca251cf and later · before b6249c1d5665098c8bf12f8d3e4712bf04c775bcaffected · git
    • before 6.6not affected · semver
    • 6.6.160 and later · up to and including 6.6.*not affected · semver
    • 6.12.113 and later · up to and including 6.12.*not affected · semver
    • 6.18.56 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:12linux-6.12before 6.12.113-1~deb12u16.12.113-1~deb12u1
Debian:13linuxbefore 6.12.113-16.12.113-1
Debian:14linuxbefore 7.2.10-17.2.10-1

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-2026-98715Oct 18, 2026 · KVM: SVM: Preserve TLB control (i.e. pending TLB flush) on failed VMRUN
    0Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2026-98716Oct 18, 2026 · KVM: SVM: Use the active VMCB's MSR bitmap when checking if MSR is intercepted
    0Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2026-98718Oct 18, 2026 · KVM: SEV: Do cache maintenance on the source VM *before* clearing SEV state
    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 Linux681e31f03ec9219099a66a0f6e1bc48e1b5aa914Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linux951fce1510645ba5df38da6fb85ece5726ec347dVendor (CNA)
Linux Linux97c1dcce17ef27853860c781f9912257e6adbf7cVendor (CNA)
Linux Linuxb6249c1d5665098c8bf12f8d3e4712bf04c775bcVendor (CNA)
Linux Linuxe1bcabc07efd029ab414894127411129ffdb8b48Vendor (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:linux6.12.113-1 · Debian:13Package registry (OSV)
debian:linux-6.126.12.113-1~deb12u1 · Debian:12Package 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.

  1. Published
  2. Fix recordedsame day
  3. TodayNov 7, 2026+20 d
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).

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. Exploit maturity— → none
  2. 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