{"id":"CVE-2026-97989","title":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nvduse: validate virtqueue alignment\n\nvduse_validate_config() only checks the upper bound of vq_align","summary":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nvduse: validate virtqueue alignment\n\nvduse_validate_config() only checks the upper bound of vq_align. Invalid\nvalues can therefore reach vring_create_virtqueue_map(). T…","severity":"medium","vendor":"Linux","product":"Linux","affected":["Linux >= c8a6153b6c59d95c0e091f053f6f180952ade91e < c3c3b0839a1197530cc18f535062fc84dbdfc885","Linux >= c8a6153b6c59d95c0e091f053f6f180952ade91e < fa2c25b4add57888acfa89e398389e267bff3dcf","Linux 5.15"],"published":"2026-09-25","updated":"2026-10-15","sourceUpdated":"2026-10-15T11:18:09.563","source":"NVD","sourceUrl":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-97989","references":[{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/831dab9b9bcc184adf78f18b5b788316e3174aec","label":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c3c3b0839a1197530cc18f535062fc84dbdfc885","label":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fa2c25b4add57888acfa89e398389e267bff3dcf","label":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"},{"url":"https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-97989.json"},{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-97989"},{"url":"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2541031"},{"url":"https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-97989"},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-97989"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/security/vulns.git/plain/cve/published/2026/CVE-2026-97989.mbox"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/650bac9c73d3b4d83be683028283654c05346556"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5d4bdca17d87c90b1d888f8846a781a18aa453c9"}],"tags":["nvd","cve.org","csaf","vex","red-hat"],"epss":0.00168,"epssPercentile":0.06113,"ingestedAt":"2026-09-25T11:06:38.865Z","cvss":5.5,"cvssVector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","cvssSource":"vendor","cwe":["CWE-476"],"slug":"CVE-2026-97989","body":"## Overview\n\nIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nvduse: validate virtqueue alignment\n\nvduse_validate_config() only checks the upper bound of vq_align. Invalid\nvalues can therefore reach vring_create_virtqueue_map(). The split-ring\nhelpers use align - 1 as a bit mask, so the alignment must be a non-zero\npower of two. A zero value makes vring_size() drop the descriptor and\navailable-ring part and vring_init() leave the used ring pointer NULL.\n\nThe VIRTIO spec requires the used ring to start at an address\naligned to at least 4 bytes. Reject values below VRING_USED_ALIGN_SIZE as\nwell as non-power-of-two values before they reach the virtio ring helpers.\n\nOpening a virtio-net device created with vq_align=0 triggered:\n\nBUG: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in virtqueue_kick_prepare_split+0xe3/0x100\nRead of size 2 at addr 0000000000000000 by task systemd-network/1062\n\nCall Trace (relevant frames):\n dump_stack_lvl\n print_report\n kasan_report\n __asan_load2\n virtqueue_kick_prepare_split+0xe3/0x100\n virtqueue_kick_prepare+0x40/0x60\n try_fill_recv+0x857/0x1250\n virtnet_open+0x189/0x460\n __dev_open+0x225/0x390\n __dev_change_flags+0x368/0x3b0\n netif_change_flags+0x56/0xc0\n do_setlink.isra.0+0x68c/0x1e30\n\nValidate the value before it reaches the virtio ring helpers.\n\n## Remediation\n\nRefer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.\n\n## Vendor advisories\n\n- **Red Hat VEX** · Low · affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 · no fix planned: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 · updated 2026-10-17 · [vex](https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-97989.json)","depth":"sunlit","depthScore":30,"depthScoreParts":{"impact":30.3,"likelihood":0,"exploitation":0,"ransomware":0},"changes":[{"seq":224177,"id":"CVE-2026-97989","ts":1792324985863,"field":"cvss","old":null,"new":"5.5"},{"seq":224176,"id":"CVE-2026-97989","ts":1792324985863,"field":"severity","old":"none","new":"medium"}]}