CVE-2026-98717
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: x86/mmu: Bail from shadow walks if the root is invalid or a dummy When walking shadow page tables, immediately terminate t…
Overview
CVE-2026-98717 is a known-severity vulnerability. It was published on October 18, 2026.
Technical description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
KVM: x86/mmu: Bail from shadow walks if the root is invalid or a dummy
When walking shadow page tables, immediately terminate the walk if the root
is a "dummy" root, i.e. a root whose top-level page table is backed by the
zero page, but otherwise doesn't exist. If memslot creation races with a
stage-2 page fault (EPT violation or #NPF) from L2, then if the stars align,
KVM will attempt to walk shadow page tables using the zero page and hit a
NULL pointer deref.
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000021
#PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
#PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
PGD 0 P4D 0
Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP
CPU: 30 UID: 1000 PID: 941 Comm: qemu Not tainted 7.2.0-rc2-1b731e5ded48-next-vm #1741 PREEMPTLAZY
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015
RIP: 0010:__kvm_mmu_invalidate_addr+0xea/0x210 [kvm]
Call Trace:
<TASK>
kvm_m
Remediation
Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
References
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Frequently asked questions
What is CVE-2026-98717?
CVE-2026-98717 is a known-severity vulnerability. It was published on October 18, 2026.
How severe is CVE-2026-98717?
CVSS score information is not yet available for this vulnerability. Check back as the CVE record is updated by NVD analysts.
How do I fix or remediate CVE-2026-98717?
Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
How can CyberStrike help with CVE-2026-98717?
CyberStrike is an open-source, AI-augmented pentesting engine. Rather than flag a version number, it tests whether an issue like CVE-2026-98717 is actually reachable in your own applications and APIs, then verifies each finding before reporting it. That tells you if the weakness is a real, exploitable risk in your environment or a false positive you can safely deprioritize.