Answer in brief
CVE-2026-97988 records a Unknown severity vulnerability in vhost: invalidate vring access on IOTLB transitions. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps Linux/Linux (generic), Linux/Linux (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
Analysis pending evidence review
HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.
A CVSS score is not reported in the current record. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.
Analysis status
Analysis pending evidence review
Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.
The current feed maps Linux/Linux (generic), Linux/Linux (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
| Package | Affected range | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| Linux/Linuxgeneric | >=6b1e6cc7855b09a0a9bfa1d9f30172ba366f161c <4a454af8e56c1596ada1421ae5eba90c8896c7c7 || >=6b1e6cc7855b09a0a9bfa1d9f30172ba366f161c <e4f4761879a230aa59e569102a6ab9851847d833 | 4a454af8e56c1596ada1421ae5eba90c8896c7c7, e4f4761879a230aa59e569102a6ab9851847d833 |
| Linux/Linuxgeneric | 4.8 | Not reported |
Published upstream
Sep 25, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordSource modified
Sep 25, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordFirst seen by HOL
Sep 25, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vhost: invalidate vring access on IOTLB transitions When VIRTIO_F_ACCESS_PLATFORM changes, cached vring pointers and IOTLB metadata are interpreted in a different address space. Keeping them across the transition can leave stale ring mappings in use. Clearing d->iotlb before taking the VQ locks also lets a worker observe a transient NULL d->iotlb and fall back to d->umem while translating a descriptor. Add a common vhost_clear_device_iotlb() helper for vhost-net and vhost-vsock. Take all VQ mutexes in index order before dropping the device-wide IOTLB, invalidate each VQ's cached ring access and metadata, clear pending IOTLB messages, and free the old table after the handoff. This serializes the transition with workers and prevents mixed address space mappings. On the first direct-to-IOTLB transition, invalidate the cached vring addresses. When an existing device IOTLB is replaced, preserve the GIOVA ring addresses and reset only the metadata cache. After clearing ACCESS_PLATFORM, userspace must configure the vring addresses for the new address mode. vhost_vq_invalidate_access() clears desc, avail, and used together. Treat the VQ as invalidated only when all three are NULL, since a single GIOVA address may legitimately be zero.
Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.