CVE-2026-72288

CRITICALCVSS 9.3/10EPSS 0.20%

Last modified

CVE-2026-72288 is a critical-severity vulnerability rated 9.3/10 on the CVSS scale. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: arm64: vgic: Handle race between interrupt affinity change and LPI disabling Hyunwoo Kim reports some really bad races should the following situation occur: - LPI-I is pending in vcpu-B's AP list - vcpu-A writes to vcpu-B's RD to disable its LPIs - vcpu-C moves I from B to C If the last two race nicely enough, vgic_prune_ap_list() can drop the irq and AP list locks, reacquire them, and in the interval the irq has been freed. UAF follows. The fix is two-fold: - Before dropping the irq and ap_list locks, take a reference on the irq - Do not try to handle migration of the pending bit: there is no expectation that this state is retained, as per the architecture With that, we're sure that the interrupt is still around, and we safely remove it from the AP list as it has no target at this stage (unless another interrupt fires, but that's another story).. EPSS estimates a 0.20% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: arm64: vgic: Handle race between interrupt affinity change and LPI disabling Hyunwoo Kim reports some really bad races should the following situation occur: - LPI-I is pending in vcpu-B's AP list - vcpu-A writes to vcpu-B's RD to disable its LPIs - vcpu-C moves I from B to C If the last two race nicely enough, vgic_prune_ap_list() can drop the irq and AP list locks, reacquire them, and in the interval the irq has been freed. UAF follows. The fix is two-fold: - Before dropping the irq and ap_list locks, take a reference on the irq - Do not try to handle migration of the pending bit: there is no expectation that this state is retained, as per the architecture With that, we're sure that the interrupt is still around, and we safely remove it from the AP list as it has no target at this stage (unless another interrupt fires, but that's another story).

Metrics

CVSS 3.1
9.3/10

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Probability
0.20%

9.9th percentile

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days. Learn more

Affected Software

Source: CNA advisory (CVE.org). NVD analysis pending.

VendorProductVersions
LinuxLinux>= 5dd4b924e390af426e424d5e52c1b4d1566af817, < d19dca8194ebed371e624331c6be2cb73b562caf; >= 5dd4b924e390af426e424d5e52c1b4d1566af817, < b1a89d12d35a8256d2b170ced0b1c86851f3def2; >= 5dd4b924e390af426e424d5e52c1b4d1566af817, < 7258770e5814f15e8308ebda82ac9acf6964ba8e
LinuxLinux4.8

References

Timeline

Published
Last Modified
Status
Received

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-72288?
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: arm64: vgic: Handle race between interrupt affinity change and LPI disabling Hyunwoo Kim reports some really bad races should the following situation occur: - LPI-I is pending in vcpu-B's AP list - vcpu-A writes to vcpu-B's RD to disable its LPIs - vcpu-C moves I from B to C If the last two race nicely enough, vgic_prune_ap_list() can drop the irq and AP list locks, reacquire them, and in the interval the irq has been freed. UAF follows. The fix is two-fold: - Before dropping the irq and ap_list locks, take a reference on the irq - Do not try to handle migration of the pending bit: there is no expectation that this state is retained, as per the architecture With that, we're sure that the interrupt is still around, and we safely remove it from the AP list as it has no target at this stage (unless another interrupt fires, but that's another story).
How severe is CVE-2026-72288?
CVE-2026-72288 has a CVSS score of 9.3/10 (CRITICAL severity). The EPSS model estimates a 0.20% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How do I fix CVE-2026-72288?
Check the vendor references and advisories linked above for patched versions and mitigation guidance. You can also run a Strix scan to test if your systems are affected.

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Source: NVD / NIST