CVE-2026-23198: linux NULL Pointer Dereference

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-23198 is a high (CVSS 7.8) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.15% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 3.4% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 14-02-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 19-10-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: Don't clobber irqfd routing type when deassigning irqfd When deassigning a KVM_IRQFD, don't clobber the irqfd's copy of the IRQ's routing entry as doing so breaks kvm_arch_irq_bypass_del_producer() on x86 and arm64, which explicitly look for KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_MSI. Instead, to handle a concurrent routing update, verify that the irqfd is still active before consuming the routing information. As evidenced by the x86 and arm64 bugs, and another bug in kvm_arch_update_irqfd_routing() (see below), clobbering the entry type without notifying arch code is surprising and error prone. As a bonus, checking that the irqfd is active provides a convenient location for documenting _why_ KVM must not consume the routing entry for an irqfd that is in the process of being deassigned: once the irqfd is deleted from the list (which happens *before* the eventfd is detached), it will no longer receive updates via kvm_irq_routing_update(), and so KVM could deliver an event using stale routing information (relative to KVM_SET_GSI_ROUTING returning to userspace). As an even better bonus, explicitly checking for the irqfd being active fixes a similar bug to the one the clobbering is trying to prevent: if an irqfd is deactivated, and then its routing is changed, kvm_irq_routing_update() won't invoke kvm_arch_update_irqfd_routing() (because the irqfd isn't in the list). And so if the irqfd is in bypass mode, IRQs will continue to be posted using the old routing information. As for kvm_arch_irq_bypass_del_producer(), clobbering the routing type results in KVM incorrectly keeping the IRQ in bypass mode, which is especially problematic on AMD as KVM tracks IRQs that are being posted to a vCPU in a list whose lifetime is tied to the irqfd. Without the help of KASAN to detect use-after-free, the most common sympton on AMD is a NULL pointer deref in amd_iommu_update_ga() due to the memory for irqfd structure being re-allocated and zeroed, resulting in irqfd->irq_bypass_data being NULL when read by avic_update_iommu_vcpu_affinity(): BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000018 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 40cf2b9067 P4D 40cf2b9067 PUD 408362a067 PMD 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP CPU: 6 UID: 0 PID: 40383 Comm: vfio_irq_test Tainted: G U W O 6.19.0-smp--5dddc257e6b2-irqfd #31 NONE Tainted: [U]=USER, [W]=WARN, [O]=OOT_MODULE Hardware name: Google, Inc. Arcadia_IT_80/Arcadia_IT_80, BIOS 34.78.2-0 09/05/2025 RIP: 0010:amd_iommu_update_ga+0x19/0xe0 Call Trace: <TASK> avic_update_iommu_vcpu_affinity+0x3d/0x90 [kvm_amd] __avic_vcpu_load+0xf4/0x130 [kvm_amd] kvm_arch_vcpu_load+0x89/0x210 [kvm] vcpu_load+0x30/0x40 [kvm] kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x45/0x620 [kvm] kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x571/0x6a0 [kvm] __se_sys_ioctl+0x6d/0xb0 do_syscall_64+0x6f/0x9d0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 RIP: 0033:0x46893b </TASK> ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- If AVIC is inhibited when the irfd is deassigned, the bug will manifest as list corruption, e.g. on the next irqfd assignment. list_add corruption. next->prev should be prev (ffff8d474d5cd588), but was 0000000000000000. (next=ffff8d8658f86530). ------------[ cut here ]------------ kernel BUG at lib/list_debug.c:31! Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP CPU: 128 UID: 0 PID: 80818 Comm: vfio_irq_test Tainted: G U W O 6.19.0-smp--f19dc4d680ba-irqfd #28 NONE Tainted: [U]=USER, [W]=WARN, [O]=OOT_MODULE Hardware name: Google, Inc. Arcadia_IT_80/Arcadia_IT_80, BIOS 34.78.2-0 09/05/2025 RIP: 0010:__list_add_valid_or_report+0x97/0xc0 Call Trace: <TASK> avic_pi_update_irte+0x28e/0x2b0 [kvm_amd] kvm_pi_update_irte+0xbf/0x190 [kvm] kvm_arch_irq_bypass_add_producer+0x72/0x90 [kvm] irq_bypass_register_consumer+0xcd/0x170 [irqbypa ---truncated---

• CWE-476NULL Pointer DereferenceThe product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.
• CWE-416Use After FreeThe product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.