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Linux Kernel EUVDEUVD-2026-80296

| CVE-2026-89775 CRITICAL
2026-09-16 Linux GHSA-4h2c-gw77-f478
9.3
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: Linux
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Severity by source

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

Local arm64 nested-virt only (AV:L), requires the rare S1-MMU-off code path and stale-TLB timing (AC:H), attacker must run a guest workload (PR:L); guest-to-host stale mappings justify S:C with high 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:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H

Primary rating from Vendor (Linux).

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

5
Analysis Generated
Sep 16, 2026 - 17:35 vuln.today
CVSS changed
Sep 16, 2026 - 15:22 NVD
9.3 (CRITICAL)
Patch available
Sep 16, 2026 - 10:02 EUVD
CVE Published
Sep 16, 2026 - 08:39 cve.org
CRITICAL 9.3
CVE Published
Sep 16, 2026 - 08:39 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionCVE.org

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

KVM: arm64: Handle negative S1 walk levels in VNCR TLB size evaluation

Computing the effects of a TLB invalidation involves looking at the size of the mapping cached by the TLB. For S1 mappings such as VNCR, this is deducted from the combination of the base granule size and the mapping level.

However, this implies that the S1 MMU is *on*. When the MMU is off, we indicate this with the level being set to a "creative" value of -127 (S1_MMU_DISABLED).

This ends-up being misinterpreted by pgshift_level_to_ttl() as it doesn't handle negative levels at all (the level is immediately cast to a u8 and only the bottom two bits considered), leading to an invalidation size of 0. Not helpful.

Tidy-up pgshift_level_to_ttl() to handle these negative levels, and ttl_to_size() to always return SZ_1G when no valid TTL is present. This allows the removal of open-coded checks for similar situations.

Note that the check for a negative value not explicitely checking for S1_MMU_DISABLED is deliberate, so that actual negative levels introduced with LVA2 and D128 can take the same path if we ever support them.

AnalysisAI

A mis-sized TLB invalidation in the Linux kernel's KVM/arm64 stage-1 handling can leave stale translations resident in the TLB when the stage-1 MMU is disabled during a VNCR (nested virtualization / FEAT_NV2) invalidation, so a workload able to drive nested-guest TLB operations on a vulnerable arm64 host may retain access to mappings that should have been flushed. The bug is a correctness defect in TLB-invalidation size computation rather than an exposed remotely reachable primitive: it requires an arm64 host running KVM with nested virtualization enabled on an affected kernel, and our independent assessment rates it AV:L/AC:H/PR:L (local access, high attack complexity), materially lower than the published CVSS 9.3, because no path from a stale-TLB condition to a concrete memory-safety effect has been demonstrated. …

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Vulnerability AssessmentAI

Exploitation Requires an arm64 host running KVM with nested virtualization (FEAT_NV2 / VNCR) enabled, on a vulnerable kernel (6.16 through 6.18.51, or 7.x before the fix). … Additional conditions and limiting factors are described in the full assessment.
Risk Assessment This is a subtle correctness bug in KVM/arm64 TLB-invalidation size computation: when the stage-1 MMU is off, the level is encoded as a 'creative' negative value (S1_MMU_DISABLED = -127) that pgshift_level_to_ttl() mishandles (casting to u8 and reading only two bits), yielding an invalidation size of 0. … Full risk analysis with EPSS, KEV, and SSVC signal comparison available after sign-in.
Exploit Scenario Full exploit scenario with step-by-step reproduction available after sign-in.
Remediation Apply the vendor-released kernel fix: upgrade to Linux 6.18.51, Linux 7.2.5, or Linux 7.3-rc1 (or later), or cherry-pick the upstream stable commits be54a70067c7dbe1381157e8a238fa4b16ea9c05, 1c9fca34b9625a67a7f1a03c8604f3df760c6c49, or 8053393680d4fa3eb962667d2be95dd39f0940e5 from git.kernel.org (the NVD entry https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-89775 and EUVD-2026-80296 can be used to track the advisory). … Detailed patch versions, workarounds, and compensating controls in full report.

Recommended ActionAI

Within 24 hours, inventory all arm64 hosts running KVM and confirm whether nested virtualization (FEAT_NV2) is enabled; where nested virtualization is not a business requirement, disable it to reduce exposure. …

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EUVD-2026-80296 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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