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Linux Kernel CVE-2026-23215

MEDIUM
2026-02-18 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Information Disclosure Linux Red Hat VMware Linux Kernel Suse
5.5
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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Vulnerability Assessment

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to compromise the affected system.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
Patch available 0.0% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Mar 12, 2026

The Linux kernel's VMware hypercall implementation improperly handles register state during mouse events, allowing local attackers with user privileges to trigger a denial of service through a kernel panic via crafted input to the vmmouse driver. The vulnerability stems from incomplete register preservation when the QEMU VMware mouse emulation clears the upper 32 bits of CPU registers containing kernel pointers. No patch is currently available for this medium-severity issue affecting Linux systems running on VMware or QEMU with vmmouse support.

Earlier versions of this analysis (1)
v1 Mar 12, 2026 - 21:55 CVSS 5.5

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

x86/vmware: Fix hypercall clobbers

Fedora QA reported the following panic:

BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 0000000040003e54 #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS edk2-20251119-3.fc43 11/19/2025 RIP: 0010:vmware_hypercall4.constprop.0+0x52/0x90 ..

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Technical ContextAI · show details

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

x86/vmware: Fix hypercall clobbers

Fedora QA reported the following panic:

BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 0000000040003e54 #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS edk2-20251119-3.fc43 11/19/2025 RIP: 0010:vmware_hypercall4.constprop.0+0x52/0x90 .. Call Trace: vmmouse_report_events+0x13e/0x1b0

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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 5.5 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
SUSE MEDIUM
Red Hat 4.7 MEDIUM

Primary rating from NVD.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Patch released
Apr 09, 2026 - 20:30 nvd
Patch available
CVE Published
Feb 18, 2026 - 15:18 nvd
MEDIUM 5.5

DescriptionCVE.org

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

x86/vmware: Fix hypercall clobbers

Fedora QA reported the following panic:

BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 0000000040003e54 #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS edk2-20251119-3.fc43 11/19/2025 RIP: 0010:vmware_hypercall4.constprop.0+0x52/0x90 .. Call Trace: vmmouse_report_events+0x13e/0x1b0 psmouse_handle_byte+0x15/0x60 ps2_interrupt+0x8a/0xd0 ...

because the QEMU VMware mouse emulation is buggy, and clears the top 32 bits of %rdi that the kernel kept a pointer in.

The QEMU vmmouse driver saves and restores the register state in a "uint32_t data[6];" and as a result restores the state with the high bits all cleared.

RDI originally contained the value of a valid kernel stack address (0xff5eeb3240003e54). After the vmware hypercall it now contains 0x40003e54, and we get a page fault as a result when it is dereferenced.

The proper fix would be in QEMU, but this works around the issue in the kernel to keep old setups working, when old kernels had not happened to keep any state in %rdi over the hypercall.

In theory this same issue exists for all the hypercalls in the vmmouse driver; in practice it has only been seen with vmware_hypercall3() and vmware_hypercall4(). For now, just mark RDI/RSI as clobbered for those two calls. This should have a minimal effect on code generation overall as it should be rare for the compiler to want to make RDI/RSI live across hypercalls.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

CVE-2026-23215 presents moderate security risk rated CVSS 5.5. Exploitation could compromise the security of affected deployments. Organizations should apply vendor updates when available and monitor for exploitation.

Business Impact: Low
Compensating Controls

Apply vendor patch. If patching is delayed: restrict network access and enable monitoring.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.0%
Top 94% exploitable
Data Quality
4 sources
Confidence: Medium
NVD CVE.org EPSS Vendor VulDB

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity MEDIUM
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.0%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Defer
Exploitation· derived
None
System Exposure· derived
Small
Automatable· derived
No
Human Impact
Low

Priority Score

28
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +28
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Information Disclosure MEDIUM

Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.

Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org

cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc7:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc8:*:*:*:*:*:*

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Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Medium
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP7 Affected

References

Advisories & patches
ADVISORY https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8278-1 ADVISORY https://vuldb.com/?id.346512 REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2687c848e57820651b9f69d30c4710f4219f7dbf REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2f467a92df61eb516a4ec36ee16234dd4e5ccf00 REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/feb603a69f830acb58f78d604f0c29e63cd38f87

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