Use-after-free in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-98464
Published: October 22, 2026
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a local user to trigger use-after-free in the host kernel, potentially causing a denial of service.
The vulnerability exists due to use-after-free in the RISC-V KVM non-Sstc vCPU timer implementation when teardown frees a vCPU without synchronizing with a running timer callback. A local user can arm the timer from a guest using SBI TIME and request shutdown using SBI legacy shutdown or SRST to race the callback against vCPU destruction, potentially crashing the host when the VMM honors KVM_EXIT_SYSTEM_EVENT and destroys the VM.
Affected software
Ubuntu
linux (Ubuntu package)
linux-aws (Ubuntu package)
linux-gcp (Ubuntu package)
linux-oracle (Ubuntu package)
linux-ibm (Ubuntu package)
linux-hwe-7.0 (Ubuntu package)
linux-oem-7.0 (Ubuntu package)
How to mitigate CVE-2026-98464
linux (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-42.42
linux-aws (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1016.17
linux-gcp (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1016.18
linux-oracle (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1015.16
linux-ibm (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1017.17
linux-hwe-7.0 (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-42.42~24.04.1
linux-oem-7.0 (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1017.17
External References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2af03b606aadaaeb386658ef798c79bdcdef87c1
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3cc6184bd5920c9685d87f4e260568feba08650d
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9bdbae64ae0dab93041ebc57ec4e93def793fc2d
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/aaad136d56d91252517272b68cd533e5714698d5
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e66aced74f0122380603c9910a71d77618b28f0e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ea91f05a55b807ead3166546a2c75f4185ca645f