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Linux Kernel KVM PPC Book3S HV Nested Guest IDR Pointer Freed Without Clearing Reference, Enabling Host Use-After-Free from Guest Context

Last refreshed2026-10-10

Status: UPDATED  |  Advisory ID: CVE-2026-98283

Key Details

CVECVE-2026-98283
CVSS Score / Version8.8 (High) / CVSS v3.1
Updated2026-10-07
CVSS VectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS Proseattack vector is local; attack complexity is low; privileges required is low; user interaction is none; scope is changed; confidentiality impact is high; integrity impact is high; availability impact is high.
Affected productsLinux Kernel

Affected Products, Subsystems & Sectors

VendorProductAffected VersionsPatch Status
LinuxLinux Kernel
SubsystemsOT Supporting Infrastructure
SectorsAll Sectors

What to Know

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

KVM: PPC: Book3S HV: fix use-after-free in kvmhv_emulate_tlbie_all_lpid()

kvmhv_emulate_tlbie_all_lpid() iterates the nested-guest IDR and drops

mmu_lock before calling kvmhv_emulate_tlbie_lpid(), but does not hold a

reference on the kvm_nested_guest pointer obtained from the IDR. A

concurrent vCPU issuing a single-LPID tlbie (is=2, ric=2) can race

through kvmhv_flush_nested() -> kvmhv_remove_nested() -> idr_remove /

--refcnt -> kvmhv_release_nested() -> kfree(gp) in that window, leaving

the iterating vCPU with a dangling pointer. The subsequent

mutex_lock(&gp->tlb_lock) and accesses to gp->shadow_pgtable,

gp->shadow_lpid and gp->l1_host all touch freed memory. The free path

is fully L1-controlled.

Fix this by incrementing gp->refcnt inside the loop before dropping

mmu_lock, mirroring what kvmhv_get_nested() does, and releasing the

reference with kvmhv_put_nested() after the per-guest work completes.

This is the same get/put discipline already used at every other

call site that drops mmu_lock while holding a nested-guest pointer. (NVD)

What to Do

Monitor Linux's web page for any future patch releases.

References

SourceReference
NVDhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98283
CVEhttps://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-98283