CVE-2026-98440 (CVSS 7)

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: arm64: nv: Delay freeing of shadow S2 structures until VM destruction We free the shadow S2 structures from kvm_arch_flush_shadow_all(), which is a Bad Idea(tm). Freeing the page tables is fair game (this is what this callback is for), but freeing the container that could still be referenced by another part of the system is not great. Instead, grow separate destructors that gets called when we tear the VM down for good. From there, we can nuke both the individual MMUs as well as the global array that points to them, safe in the knowledge that the vcpus themselves have been destroyed already.

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CVSS v3.1 Score

7.0

HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS — Exploit Prediction

0.0012

Probability of exploitation

0.02%

Percentile rank

EPSS estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A higher score means more likely to be exploited.

References

Other References

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/22e82acec93a681071ed36f70eabe2d0c4e0bebd https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5bf1c9175e657b3c2dc1cf77403031ac7aadcf66 https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/876049f026b4dfaca0cc78ec81be0e639ca8525d https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e5843f4effaa2ffac3e789ecd4456403564961d4

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-98440? +

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: arm64: nv: Delay freeing of shadow S2 structures until VM destruction We free the shadow S2 structures from kvm_arch_flush_shadow_all(), which is a Bad Idea(tm). Freeing the page tables is fair game (this is what this callback is for), but freeing the container that could still be referenced by another part of the system is not great. Instead, grow separate destructors that gets called when we tear the VM down for good. From there, we can nuke both the individual MMUs as well as the global array that points to them, safe in the knowledge that the vcpus themselves have been destroyed already. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.0 (HIGH).

How severe is CVE-2026-98440? +

CVE-2026-98440 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.0 out of 10, rated HIGH. This is a high-severity vulnerability that should be prioritized for patching. The EPSS score is 0.0012, placing it in the 0th percentile for exploitation probability.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2026-98440? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

CVE-2026-98440