vduse: validate virtqueue alignment

Answer in brief

CVE-2026-97989 records a Unknown severity vulnerability in vduse: validate virtqueue alignment. 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.

Published Sep 25, 2026Updated Sep 25, 2026Source checked Sep 25, 2026First seen by HOL Sep 25, 2026Material review Sep 25, 2026

Upstream Advisory

Key facts

Risk: Unknown severitySource severity not reported
Exploitation: Not marked as known exploited
Affected software: 2 mapped packages or products
Fix availability: Available

Why this deserves its current priority

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.

Affected scope and exposure questions

The current feed maps Linux/Linux (generic), Linux/Linux (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.

Mapped affected packages and fixed versions
Package	Affected range	Fixed version
Linux/Linuxgeneric	>=c8a6153b6c59d95c0e091f053f6f180952ade91e <c3c3b0839a1197530cc18f535062fc84dbdfc885 \|\| >=c8a6153b6c59d95c0e091f053f6f180952ade91e <fa2c25b4add57888acfa89e398389e267bff3dcf	c3c3b0839a1197530cc18f535062fc84dbdfc885, fa2c25b4add57888acfa89e398389e267bff3dcf
Linux/Linuxgeneric	5.15	Not reported

Recommended response

Check inventory. Check lockfiles and deployed manifests for Linux/Linux, Linux/Linux.
Review the reported fix. Update Linux/Linux to c3c3b0839a1197530cc18f535062fc84dbdfc885 if you use the affected versions. Test the change in a non-production environment first.

Evidence timeline and material changes

Published upstream
Sep 25, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:record
Source modified
Sep 25, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:record
First seen by HOL
Sep 25, 2026

Sources and claim methodology

Upstream source description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vduse: validate virtqueue alignment vduse_validate_config() only checks the upper bound of vq_align. Invalid values can therefore reach vring_create_virtqueue_map(). The split-ring helpers use align - 1 as a bit mask, so the alignment must be a non-zero power of two. A zero value makes vring_size() drop the descriptor and available-ring part and vring_init() leave the used ring pointer NULL. The VIRTIO spec requires the used ring to start at an address aligned to at least 4 bytes. Reject values below VRING_USED_ALIGN_SIZE as well as non-power-of-two values before they reach the virtio ring helpers. Opening a virtio-net device created with vq_align=0 triggered: BUG: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in virtqueue_kick_prepare_split+0xe3/0x100 Read of size 2 at addr 0000000000000000 by task systemd-network/1062 Call Trace (relevant frames): dump_stack_lvl print_report kasan_report __asan_load2 virtqueue_kick_prepare_split+0xe3/0x100 virtqueue_kick_prepare+0x40/0x60 try_fill_recv+0x857/0x1250 virtnet_open+0x189/0x460 __dev_open+0x225/0x390 __dev_change_flags+0x368/0x3b0 netif_change_flags+0x56/0xc0 do_setlink.isra.0+0x68c/0x1e30 Validate the value before it reaches the virtio ring helpers.

Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.