Vulnerability · Published Oct 18, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2026-98719KVM: SEV: Nullify "have run CPUs" mask pointer when freeing it

Unrated

In plain English

A security flaw in Linux from Linux. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 6% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS )–Not rated
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 94.1% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsnot in CISA KEV
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: SEV: Nullify "have run CPUs" mask pointer when freeing it Nullify have_run_cpus when freeing the mask, particularly in the error path of __sev_guest_init(), so that KVM doesn't have to subtly use sev->active to track whether or not the mask has been freed. As pointed out by Sashiko, blindly freeing the mask in sev_vm_destroy() results in a double-free if the mask is freed if __sev_guest_init() fails. Throw the logic in a helper as nullifying the pointer is frustratingly difficult and weird due to have_run_cpus being a single-entry array when CPUMASK_OFFSTACK=n. Deliberately don't use CPUMASK_VAR_NULL, as it's not directly assignable when the cpumask is on-stack, e.g. requires using a local variable and a memcpy(), which is beyond ridiculous. Furthermore, while clearing the on-stack bitmask is an unnecessary and arguably unwanted side effect, KVM absolutely relies on '0' being the "null" value given that the struct is zero-allocated. Opportunistically add an alloc() helper to pair with free(); there are just enough call sites to make doing so worthwhile.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:14linux7.2.10-1DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:26.04:LTSlinuxno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:26.04:LTSlinux-awsno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:26.04:LTSlinux-azureno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-nvidia-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:26.04:LTSlinux-gcpno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-7.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:26.04:LTSlinux-ibmno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.8no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:26.04:LTSlinux-oem-7.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:26.04:LTSlinux-oracleno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:26.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscv-7.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-98719

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux 6aef7cf800098749ff5d660222efaf6e01e98c09 – before b1de3ebf59507e0edacaa5cfa2225bc1869e1b639784e5ca91b37b387f3f414af4340c54f7a63566 – before 0fbc7fec2242de6c3dcea6de55573c428e82017312c1f6e03f944e399bd2c88441dca5dc702b95a5 – before 8abbc76120a74bfba1851bd97528099d715e45c6
Linux Linux 6.18.55 – before 6.18.567.2.9 – before 7.2.10

References