Double free in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-98719

Vulnerability identifier: #VU157066

CSH Severity: Low

CVSS v4: 6.8 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]

CVE-ID: CVE-2026-98719

CWE-ID: CWE-415

Exploitation vector: Local access

Exploit availability: No public exploit available

The vulnerability allows a local user to potentially cause a denial of service through kernel memory corruption.

The vulnerability exists due to a double free in the Linux kernel KVM SEV component when cleaning up after a failed SEV guest initialization and subsequently destroying the virtual machine. A local user can trigger this failure and destruction sequence to cause the have_run_cpus mask to be freed twice, potentially crashing the host kernel.

Linux kernel
Ubuntu
linux (Ubuntu package)
linux-gcp (Ubuntu package)
linux-aws (Ubuntu package)
linux-oracle (Ubuntu package)
linux-azure (Ubuntu package)
linux-ibm (Ubuntu package)
linux-oem-7.0 (Ubuntu package)

Install security update from vendor's repository.

Linux kernel - update to 7.0 rc3
linux (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-43.43
linux-gcp (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1017.19
linux-aws (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1017.18
linux-oracle (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1016.18
linux-azure (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1020.21
linux-ibm (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1018.18
linux-oem-7.0 (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1018.18

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0fbc7fec2242de6c3dcea6de55573c428e820173
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8abbc76120a74bfba1851bd97528099d715e45c6
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b1de3ebf59507e0edacaa5cfa2225bc1869e1b63

• Double free in Linux kernel kvm svm
• Ubuntu update for linux, linux-aws, linux-gcp and more
• Ubuntu update for linux-azure