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Linux Kernel EUVDEUVD-2026-59187

| CVE-2026-72288 CRITICAL
2026-08-15 Linux GHSA-9726-h75p-mc3x
Critical
Disputed · 9.3 Vendor: Linux
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Recon
    Control guest VM on arm64 KVM host
  2. Delivery
    Issue concurrent LPI-disable on vCPU redistributor
  3. Exploit
    Race interrupt affinity migration across vCPUs
  4. Install
    Hit lock-drop window in vgic_prune_ap_list
  5. C2
    Free interrupt while still referenced
  6. Execute
    Corrupt host kernel memory
  7. Impact
    Crash host or attempt code execution

Vulnerability Assessment

Exploitation Conditions

Requires the host to be an arm64 system running KVM with vGIC/GICv3 ITS LPI support, and the attacker must control a guest VM able to drive interrupt operations on multiple vCPUs concurrently. The concrete trigger is a race between an LPI-disable write to one vCPU's redistributor (RD) and an interrupt-affinity migration of that same LPI to another vCPU, hitting the interval where vgic_prune_ap_list() releases and reacquires the irq and ap_list locks. Limiting factors: exploitation is not possible on x86 or non-KVM hosts, requires an already-present untrusted guest (not remote/unauthenticated despite the input's PR:N), and depends on winning a narrow timing window, making success probabilistic rather than deterministic.

Impact

The supplied CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H = 9.3) overstates ease of exploitation for this class of bug: real exploitation requires winning a three-way race across vCPUs, which in practice is AC:H, not AC:L, and requires the attacker to already control a guest VM (effectively PR:L, not PR:N), so the true score is lower than 9.3. All signals point to low near-term risk: EPSS is 0.21% (11th percentile), there is no KEV listing, and no public exploit identified at time of analysis. The scope-changed rating (S:C) is justified because a guest can corrupt host-kernel memory. The realistic impact is host denial-of-service (UAF panic) with a harder-to-achieve path to host-kernel code execution; the input's 'Information Disclosure' tag is not well supported by the description and should be treated as an approximate label. Net: patch during normal kernel maintenance cycles rather than as an emergency, but multi-tenant arm64 virtualization hosts should prioritize it because the attacker is an untrusted guest and the target is the host kernel - even a mid-sized cloud operator running untrusted arm64 tenants should not defer it indefinitely. Flagged uncertainty: the input CVSS shows PR:N/AC:L, which conflicts with the description's race-and-guest-control requirements - verify privilege and complexity assumptions against the actual attack model before ranking severity.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker who already controls an untrusted guest VM on an arm64 KVM host uses multiple vCPUs to simultaneously disable LPIs on one vCPU's redistributor while migrating the same LPI's affinity to another vCPU, deliberately hitting the lock-drop window in vgic_prune_ap_list(). Winning the race frees the interrupt object while it is still referenced, corrupting host-kernel memory to crash the hypervisor or, with careful heap grooming, attempt host-kernel code execution. No public exploit identified at time of analysis, and the tight timing window makes reliable exploitation difficult.

Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Why: CRITICAL severity.
Patch available 0.2% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Aug 17, 2026

Local privilege escalation / host memory corruption in the Linux kernel's arm64 KVM vGIC subsystem allows a malicious or compromised guest VM to trigger a use-after-free by racing an LPI (Locality-specific Peripheral Interrupt) disable against an interrupt affinity migration across vCPUs. When vgic_prune_ap_list() drops and reacquires the irq and ap_list locks, a concurrent affinity change can free the interrupt out from under it, leading to a kernel UAF that can crash the host or potentially enable host-kernel code execution. This is not in CISA KEV and no public exploit identified at time of analysis; EPSS is low (0.21%, 11th percentile), consistent with a hard-to-win race rather than a turnkey exploit.

RemediationAI

Upstream fix available (commits and stable releases); update to a patched Linux kernel - 6.18.40 or later on the 6.18.y line, 7.1.5 or later on the 7.1.y line, or mainline 7.2-rc4 and later - via commits d19dca8194ebed371e624331c6be2cb73b562caf, b1a89d12d35a8256d2b170ced0b1c86851f3def2, and 7258770e5814f15e8308ebda82ac9acf6964ba8e (https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d19dca8194ebed371e624331c6be2cb73b562caf and the two companion links). Because the vulnerability is only reachable through arm64 KVM guests, the most effective compensating control until you can reboot into a patched kernel is to avoid running untrusted or multi-tenant guests on affected arm64 KVM hosts, or to migrate untrusted workloads to already-patched or non-arm64 hosts; the trade-off is reduced consolidation and possible live-migration overhead. There is no runtime toggle that disables vGIC LPI handling without breaking interrupt delivery for guests, so feature-disabling is not a practical workaround, and general kernel hardening (KASLR, guest isolation) only raises the bar rather than closing the race.

Affected VersionsENISA

Linux patch: 6.18.40
Linux 5dd4b924e390af426e424d5e52c1b4d1566af817 <7258770e5814f15e8308ebda82ac9acf6964ba8e
Linux patch: 7.1.5
Linux 5dd4b924e390af426e424d5e52c1b4d1566af817 <b1a89d12d35a8256d2b170ced0b1c86851f3def2
Linux patch: 0
Linux patch: 7.2-rc4
Linux 4.8
Linux 5dd4b924e390af426e424d5e52c1b4d1566af817 <d19dca8194ebed371e624331c6be2cb73b562caf

Affected Packages

euvd linux no fix

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 1 package in euvd

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

The flaw lives in KVM's virtual Generic Interrupt Controller (vGIC) for arm64, specifically LPI handling backed by the GICv3 Interrupt Translation Service (ITS). LPIs are message-signalled interrupts whose pending state is tracked per-vCPU on an 'AP list' (active/pending list). The bug is a classic race-condition-induced use-after-free (CWE-416 via CWE-362): vgic_prune_ap_list() temporarily releases the per-irq and ap_list spinlocks; if one vCPU disables another vCPU's LPIs via its redistributor (RD) while a third vCPU migrates the same interrupt from one vCPU to another, the interrupt object can be freed during that lock gap and then dereferenced. The CPE data only identifies the affected product generically as cpe:2.3:a:linux:linux, so exact affected trees must be read from the fix commits rather than CPE. The fix takes a reference on the irq before dropping the locks and deliberately stops trying to preserve the pending bit across migration, since the architecture makes no guarantee that pending state is retained.

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Severity by source

Sources disagree (Medium–Critical)
Vendor (Linux) PRIMARY 9.3 CRITICAL
AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI 7.8 HIGH

Attacker must control a guest (PR:L) and win a multi-vCPU race (AC:H); guest-to-host UAF justifies S:C with high host C/I/A impact.

3.1 AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
4.0 AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H
SUSE 7.8 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Red Hat 7.0 MEDIUM

vuln.today treats the vendor’s rating as authoritative. A higher third-party CVSS (e.g. CISA-ADP) is shown for transparency but does not drive the headline severity.

CVSS VectorVendor: Linux

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

Lifecycle Timeline

4
CVSS changed
Aug 17, 2026 - 06:22 NVD
9.3 (CRITICAL)
Patch available
Aug 15, 2026 - 07:20 EUVD
CVE Published
Aug 15, 2026 - 05:55 cve.org
CRITICAL 9.3
CVE Published
Aug 15, 2026 - 05:55 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionCVE.org

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

KVM: arm64: vgic: Handle race between interrupt affinity change and LPI disabling

Hyunwoo Kim reports some really bad races should the following situation occur:

  • LPI-I is pending in vcpu-B's AP list
  • vcpu-A writes to vcpu-B's RD to disable its LPIs
  • vcpu-C moves I from B to C

If the last two race nicely enough, vgic_prune_ap_list() can drop the irq and AP list locks, reacquire them, and in the interval the irq has been freed. UAF follows.

The fix is two-fold:

  • Before dropping the irq and ap_list locks, take a reference on

the irq

  • Do not try to handle migration of the pending bit: there is no

expectation that this state is retained, as per the architecture

With that, we're sure that the interrupt is still around, and we safely remove it from the AP list as it has no target at this stage (unless another interrupt fires, but that's another story).

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

CVE-2026-72288 affects the Linux kernel's KVM virtualization subsystem on ARM64-based systems, allowing a compromised guest virtual machine to escalate privileges and potentially compromise the host kernel, with no public exploit identified at time of analysis. Despite the critical CVSS score of 9.3, exploitation requires a difficult race condition, reflected in an exceptionally low EPSS score of 0.21% (11th percentile). Patch availability provides immediate remediation for this high-severity threat to virtualized infrastructure.

Business Impact: High
Compensating Controls

Apply vendor patch.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.2%
Top 89% exploitable
Prevalence
High
Linux is ubiquitous, but only arm64 KVM virtualization hosts are exposed
Data Quality
6 sources
Confidence: High

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 CRITICAL
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.2%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
CRITICAL severity
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
Scheduled
Exploitation· derived
None
System Exposure· derived
Small
Automatable· derived
No
Human Impact
High

Priority Score

46
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +46
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

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

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Important
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 16.0 Affected

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