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Unscored CVE-2026-98717 EUVD-2026-103971GHSA-hf2p-vjqm-2xw6

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

Published Oct 18, 2026 · Updated Oct 21, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

Vendor: Linux Product: Linux Package: kernel Package: linux Package: linux Package: linux-6.12 Package: linux-allwinner-5.19 Package: linux-aws Package: linux-aws-5.0 Package: linux-aws-5.11 Package: linux-aws-5.13 Package: linux-aws-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.3 Package: linux-aws-5.8 Package: linux-aws-6.14 Package: linux-aws-6.17 Package: linux-aws-6.2 Package: linux-aws-6.5 Package: linux-aws-6.8 Package: linux-aws-7.0 Package: linux-aws-fips Package: linux-azure Package: linux-azure-5.11 Package: linux-azure-5.13 Package: linux-azure-5.19 Package: linux-azure-5.3 Package: linux-azure-5.8 Package: linux-azure-6.11 Package: linux-azure-6.14 Package: linux-azure-6.17 Package: linux-azure-6.2 Package: linux-azure-6.5 Package: linux-azure-6.8 Package: linux-azure-7.0 Package: linux-azure-edge Package: linux-azure-fde Package: linux-azure-fde-5.19 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.14 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.17 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.2 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.8 Package: linux-azure-fde-7.0 Package: linux-azure-fips Package: linux-azure-nvidia Package: linux-azure-nvidia-6.14 Package: linux-bluefield Package: linux-fips Package: linux-gcp Package: linux-gcp-5.11 Package: linux-gcp-5.13 Package: linux-gcp-5.19 Package: linux-gcp-5.3 Package: linux-gcp-5.8 Package: linux-gcp-6.11 Package: linux-gcp-6.14 Package: linux-gcp-6.17 Package: linux-gcp-6.2 Package: linux-gcp-6.5 Package: linux-gcp-6.8 Package: linux-gcp-7.0 Package: linux-gcp-fips Package: linux-gke Package: linux-gke-4.15 Package: linux-gke-5.15 Package: linux-gke-5.4 Package: linux-gkeop Package: linux-gkeop-5.15 Package: linux-gkeop-5.4 Package: linux-hwe Package: linux-hwe-5.11 Package: linux-hwe-5.13 Package: linux-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-hwe-5.8 Package: linux-hwe-6.11 Package: linux-hwe-6.14 Package: linux-hwe-6.17 Package: linux-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-hwe-6.8 Package: linux-hwe-7.0 Package: linux-hwe-edge Package: linux-ibm Package: linux-ibm-6.8 Package: linux-intel-5.13 Package: linux-intel-iot-realtime Package: linux-lowlatency Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8 Package: linux-nvidia Package: linux-nvidia-6.11 Package: linux-nvidia-6.17 Package: linux-nvidia-6.2 Package: linux-nvidia-6.5 Package: linux-nvidia-6.8 Package: linux-nvidia-7.0 Package: linux-nvidia-bos Package: linux-nvidia-lowlatency Package: linux-nvidia-tegra Package: linux-oem Package: linux-oem-5.10 Package: linux-oem-5.13 Package: linux-oem-5.14 Package: linux-oem-5.17 Package: linux-oem-5.6 Package: linux-oem-6.0 Package: linux-oem-6.1 Package: linux-oem-6.11 Package: linux-oem-6.14 Package: linux-oem-6.17 Package: linux-oem-6.5 Package: linux-oem-6.8 Package: linux-oem-7.0 Package: linux-oracle Package: linux-oracle-5.0 Package: linux-oracle-5.11 Package: linux-oracle-5.13 Package: linux-oracle-5.3 Package: linux-oracle-5.8 Package: linux-oracle-6.14 Package: linux-oracle-6.17 Package: linux-oracle-6.5 Package: linux-oracle-6.8 Package: linux-oracle-7.0 Package: linux-raspi Package: linux-raspi-realtime Package: linux-raspi2 Package: linux-realtime Package: linux-realtime-6.14 Package: linux-realtime-6.17 Package: linux-realtime-6.8 Package: linux-riscv Package: linux-riscv-5.11 Package: linux-riscv-5.19 Package: linux-riscv-5.8 Package: linux-riscv-6.14 Package: linux-riscv-6.17 Package: linux-riscv-6.5 Package: linux-riscv-6.8 Package: linux-riscv-7.0 Package: linux-starfive-5.19 Package: linux-starfive-6.2 Package: linux-starfive-6.5 Package: linux-vmware Package: linux-xilinx Platform: Linux Ecosystem: Azure Linux Ecosystem: Debian Ecosystem: Ubuntu

Description

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.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Linux Linux 6.6 6.6.160

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 linux 7.2.10-1 —
Debian 13 linux 6.12.113-1 —
Debian 12 linux-6.12 6.12.113-1~deb12u1 —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Nvidia-BlueField 24.04 LTS linux-bluefield 6.8.0-1036.41 —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux 7.0.0-43.43 USN-9018-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-aws 7.0.0-1017.18 USN-9018-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-azure 7.0.0-1020.21 USN-9019-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-azure-fde 7.0.0-1019.19 USN-9020-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-gcp 7.0.0-1017.19 USN-9018-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-gke 7.0.0-1010.11 USN-9020-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-ibm +1 7.0.0-1018.18 USN-9018-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-oracle 7.0.0-1016.18 USN-9018-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-raspi 7.0.0-1023.23 USN-9021-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-realtime 7.0.0-43.43.1 USN-9020-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-riscv +2 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux 6.8.0-149.149 USN-9022-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-aws 6.8.0-1069.74 USN-9022-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-aws-7.0 7.0.0-1017.18~24.04.1 USN-9020-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure 6.8.0-1073.82 USN-9022-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure-fde 6.8.0-1071.78 USN-9039-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure-fde-7.0 7.0.0-1019.19~24.04.1 USN-9020-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gcp 6.8.0-1073.81 USN-9022-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gcp-7.0 7.0.0-1017.19~24.04.1 USN-9020-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gke 6.8.0-1068.77 USN-9022-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gkeop 6.8.0-1053.57 USN-9023-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-hwe-7.0 7.0.0-43.43~24.04.1 USN-9018-2
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-ibm 6.8.0-1069.70 USN-9022-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-lowlatency 6.8.0-149.149.1 USN-9022-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia 6.8.0-1067.70 USN-9024-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia-lowlatency 6.8.0-1067.70.1 USN-9040-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oracle 6.8.0-1067.71 USN-9022-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oracle-7.0 7.0.0-1016.18~24.04.1 USN-9020-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-raspi 6.8.0-1068.72 USN-9025-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-riscv +32 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-riscv-7.0 7.0.0-43.43.1~24.04.2 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-vmware 6.8.0-1010.10 USN-9022-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-aws-6.8 6.8.0-1069.74~22.04.1 USN-9024-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-azure-6.8 6.8.0-1073.82~22.04.1 USN-9026-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-azure-fde-6.8 6.8.0-1071.78~22.04.1 USN-9026-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-gcp-6.8 6.8.0-1073.81~22.04.1 USN-9024-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-hwe-6.8 6.8.0-149.149~22.04.1 USN-9066-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-ibm-6.8 6.8.0-1069.70~22.04.1 USN-9024-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8 6.8.0-149.149.1~22.04.1 USN-9024-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-oracle-6.8 6.8.0-1067.71~22.04.1 USN-9025-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-riscv +33 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-riscv-6.8 6.8.0-149.149~22.04.2 —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-gke +28 No fix yet —
Show 5 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-gcp +14 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS linux-hwe-edge No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-raspi-realtime 6.8.0-2056.58 USN-9025-1
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-realtime 6.8.1-1064.65 USN-9023-1
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-realtime-6.14 +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 22.04 LTS linux-realtime-6.8 6.8.1-1064.65~22.04.1 USN-9024-1
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 24.04 LTS linux-aws-fips 6.8.0-1069.74+fips1 USN-9023-1
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 24.04 LTS linux-azure-fips 6.8.0-1073.82+fips1 USN-9022-1
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 24.04 LTS linux-fips No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 24.04 LTS linux-gcp-fips 6.8.0-1073.81+fips1 USN-9023-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES 15 SP7 kernel-64kb +7 6.4.0-150700.53.90.1 SUSE-SU-2026:5091-1
SLES 15 SP7 kernel-default-base 6.4.0-150700.53.90.1.150700.17.51.1 SUSE-SU-2026:5091-1
Show 6 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES for SAP 16.0 kernel-64kb +8 6.12.0-160000.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:24662-1
SLES for SAP 16.0 kernel-default-base 6.12.0-160000.41.1.160000.2.32 SUSE-SU-2026:24662-1
SLES 16.0 kernel-64kb +8 6.12.0-160000.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:24662-1, SUSE-SU-2026:24651-1
SLES 16.0 kernel-default-base 6.12.0-160000.41.1.160000.2.32 SUSE-SU-2026:24662-1
SLE Micro 6.2 kernel-default-base 6.12.0-160000.41.1.160000.2.32 SUSE-SU-2026:24643-1
SLE Micro 6.2 kernel-rt +5 6.12.0-160000.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:24648-1, SUSE-SU-2026:24643-1
SLE Micro 6.1 kernel-default-base 6.4.0-159998.55.1.159998.21.41 SUSE-SU-2026:24619-1
SLE Micro 6.1 kernel-source +2 6.4.0-159998.55.1 SUSE-SU-2026:24619-1
SLE Micro 6.0 kernel-default-base 6.4.0-159998.55.1.159998.21.42 SUSE-SU-2026:24550-1
SLE Micro 6.0 kernel-source +2 6.4.0-159998.55.1 SUSE-SU-2026:24550-1
SLE Live Patching 15 SP7 kernel-default 6.4.0-150700.53.90.1 SUSE-SU-2026:5091-1
SLE Live Patching 15 SP7 kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP7_Update_24 1-150700.15.3.1 SUSE-SU-2026:5091-1

Amazon Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Amazon Linux 2023 kernel-livepatch-6.18.56-125.164 +1 1:1.0-0.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2026-3335, ALAS2023-2026-3251
Amazon Linux 2023 perf6.12 +11 1:6.12.113-138.209.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2026-3335
Amazon Linux 2023 perf6.18 +12 1:6.18.56-125.164.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2026-3251

Azure Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Azure Linux 3 kernel 6.6.161.1-1 —

Advisories 23

References