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no cvss —

CVE-2026-97992 json

vhost-vdpa: protect config_ctx from being freed under the config callback

published last mo. modified 21d ago also EUVD-2026-86646

cvss
—
not scored
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 9%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

vhost-vdpa: protect config_ctx from being freed under the config callback

vhost_vdpa_config_cb() loads v->config_ctx and signals it without taking a reference and without holding any lock:

struct eventfd_ctx *config_ctx = v->config_ctx;

if (config_ctx) eventfd_signal(config_ctx);

VHOST_VDPA_SET_CONFIG_CALL replaces that field and drops what is normally the last reference to the old context:

swap(ctx, v->config_ctx);

if (ctx) eventfd_ctx_put(ctx);

eventfd_ctx_put() drops the last kref and frees the context immediately, with no RCU grace period, so a callback that has already loaded the pointer goes on to dereference freed memory. The two sides share no lock: the ioctl runs under vhost_dev.mutex, while the parent invokes the callback from its own interrupt or workqueue context.

This is not the reopen refcount underflow fixed by commit f6bbf0010ba0 ("vhost-vdpa: fix use-after-free of v->config_ctx"), which was about vhost_vdpa_config_put() leaving a stale pointer behind. Here the pointer is maintained correctly and it is the read side that is unprotected.

With VDUSE as the parent this is reachable from userspace with access to /dev/vduse (root by default). VDUSE_DEV_INJECT_CONFIG_IRQ queues dev->inject, and vduse_dev_irq_inject() runs the callback under VDUSE's own dev->irq_lock, which vhost does not hold. vduse_dev_reset() does flush_work(&dev->inject), but VHOST_VDPA_SET_CONFIG_CALL never goes through reset, so an inject already in flight is not waited for. A process that injects config interrupts on the VDUSE fd while another thread swaps the call fd on the vhost-vdpa fd hits it in seconds:

BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in native_queued_spin_lock_slowpath Read of size 4 at addr ffff888107d21808 by task kworker/u17:1/2993 Workqueue: vduse-irq vduse_dev_irq_inject Call Trace: native_queued_spin_lock_slowpath+0x97/0x5b0 _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0xd4/0xe0 eventfd_signal_mask+0x69/0x120 vhost_vdpa_config_cb+0x34/0x50 vduse_dev_irq_inject+0x46/0x60 process_one_work+0x468/0x950

Allocated by task 2992: do_eventfd+0x50/0x200 __x64_sys_eventfd2+0x2e/0x40

Freed by task 2992: eventfd_ctx_put+0xb9/0xc0 vhost_vdpa_unlocked_ioctl+0x116c/0x2190

Add a spinlock covering every access to config_ctx, so the callback either signals a context that is still alive or observes NULL, and the put happens only once no callback can reach the old value.

Clearing the parent's callback before the put would not be enough: of the in-tree set_config_cb() implementations only VDUSE takes a lock, the rest store the pointer unlocked, so that would not order against an in-flight invocation.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.6.160, 6.12.111, 6.18.53, 7.2.7, 7.3
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.111-1
  • linux Debian 14 7.2.7-1
  • linux-6.12 Debian 12 6.12.111-1~deb12u1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-97992

  • linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1016.17
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1016.18
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1017.17
  • linux-riscv Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42.1
  • linux-oracle Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1015.16
  • linux-hwe-7.0 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42~24.04.1
  • linux-oem-7.0 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1017.17

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-97992

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-source openSUSE Tumbleweed 7.2.9-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:12074-1

  • kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.161.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-104819

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-97992 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: vhost-vdpa: protect config_ctx from being freed under the config callback

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8, openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9
    affected: workaround, no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.20% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 9% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-11).

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.