Local system crash via truncated hypercall pointer
Published Feb 18, 2026 · Updated Feb 18, 2026
Kernel pointer corruption in Linux kernel 6.11 and affected later branches allows local users to crash the system via VMware mouse input. QEMU's VMware mouse emulation stores register state in 32-bit array elements, clears the upper half of RDI, and returns a truncated kernel pointer that faults when dereferenced after vmware_hypercall3 or vmware_hypercall4. The condition requires an x86 guest using the affected VMware mouse emulation; the reported consequence is a kernel page fault and system crash.
Summary
What happened
Kernel pointer corruption in Linux kernel 6.11 and affected later branches allows local users to crash the system via VMware mouse input. QEMU's VMware mouse emulation stores register state in 32-bit array elements, clears the upper half of RDI, and returns a truncated kernel pointer that faults when dereferenced after vmware_hypercall3 or vmware_hypercall4. The condition requires an x86 guest using the affected VMware mouse emulation; the reported consequence is a kernel page fault and system crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-23215
- Published
- Feb 18, 2026
- Updated
- Feb 18, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux Kernel
- Classifications
- T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Feb 18, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Feb 18, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <2687c848e57820651b9f69d30c4710f4219f7dbf
- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <2f467a92df61eb516a4ec36ee16234dd4e5ccf00
- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <feb603a69f830acb58f78d604f0c29e63cd38f87
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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