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CVE-2026-98440

HIGHCVSS 7/10EPSS 0.17%

Last modified

CVE-2026-98440 is a high-severity vulnerability rated 7/10 on the CVSS scale. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: arm64: nv: Delay freeing of shadow S2 structures until VM destruction We free the shadow S2 structures from kvm_arch_flush_shadow_all(), which is a Bad Idea(tm). Freeing the page tables is fair game (this is what this callback is for), but freeing the container that could still be referenced by another part of the system is not great. Instead, grow separate destructors that gets called when we tear the VM down for good. EPSS estimates a 0.17% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: arm64: nv: Delay freeing of shadow S2 structures until VM destruction We free the shadow S2 structures from kvm_arch_flush_shadow_all(), which is a Bad Idea(tm). Freeing the page tables is fair game (this is what this callback is for), but freeing the container that could still be referenced by another part of the system is not great. Instead, grow separate destructors that gets called when we tear the VM down for good. From there, we can nuke both the individual MMUs as well as the global array that points to them, safe in the knowledge that the vcpus themselves have been destroyed already.

Metrics

CVSS 3.1
7/10

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

EPSS Probability
0.17%

5.7th percentile

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days. Learn more

Affected Software

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

VendorProductVersions
LinuxLinux>= 4f128f8e1aaac189f83d0f828bcdb2986d8d2e51, < 876049f026b4dfaca0cc78ec81be0e639ca8525d; >= 4f128f8e1aaac189f83d0f828bcdb2986d8d2e51, < 22e82acec93a681071ed36f70eabe2d0c4e0bebd; >= 4f128f8e1aaac189f83d0f828bcdb2986d8d2e51, < 5bf1c9175e657b3c2dc1cf77403031ac7aadcf66; >= 4f128f8e1aaac189f83d0f828bcdb2986d8d2e51, < e5843f4effaa2ffac3e789ecd4456403564961d4
LinuxLinux6.11

References

Timeline

Published
Last Modified
Status
Received

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-98440?
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: arm64: nv: Delay freeing of shadow S2 structures until VM destruction We free the shadow S2 structures from kvm_arch_flush_shadow_all(), which is a Bad Idea(tm). Freeing the page tables is fair game (this is what this callback is for), but freeing the container that could still be referenced by another part of the system is not great. Instead, grow separate destructors that gets called when we tear the VM down for good. From there, we can nuke both the individual MMUs as well as the global array that points to them, safe in the knowledge that the vcpus themselves have been destroyed already.
How severe is CVE-2026-98440?
CVE-2026-98440 has a CVSS score of 7/10 (HIGH severity). The EPSS model estimates a 0.17% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How do I fix CVE-2026-98440?
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