Memory corruption via premature SEV state clearing
Published Oct 18, 2026 · Updated Oct 18, 2026
A race in Linux KVM SEV allows attackers to corrupt reallocated host memory during intra-host migration and concurrent unmapping. In sev_migrate_from(), clearing the source VM's active flag before sev_writeback_caches() causes concurrent memory reclamation to skip its cache flush, allowing a later writeback to overwrite the new page owner's data with stale guest ciphertext. The race requires AMD SEV intra-host migration overlapping memory reclamation; the public description does not establish attacker-controlled timing or arbitrary code execution.
Summary
What happened
A race in Linux KVM SEV allows attackers to corrupt reallocated host memory during intra-host migration and concurrent unmapping. In sev_migrate_from(), clearing the source VM's active flag before sev_writeback_caches() causes concurrent memory reclamation to skip its cache flush, allowing a later writeback to overwrite the new page owner's data with stale guest ciphertext. The race requires AMD SEV intra-host migration overlapping memory reclamation; the public description does not establish attacker-controlled timing or arbitrary code execution.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-98718
- Published
- Oct 18, 2026
- Updated
- Oct 18, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- Unavailable
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- Unavailable
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 18, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 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?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=37dfb676fafd1eef36fe0bb649607afbb0d5521b <8b7d4f68fef96cebe0b6dbb6e5607772337f7369
- Affected versionversion=6.18.55 <6.18.56
- Affected versionversion=7.2.9 <7.2.10
- Affected versionversion=7.3-rc5
- Affected versionversion=93de2a6a4b91b72607136dd656edf03fb399d27f <973ea70393e885e540f714904e51bc6cac80e3d7
- Affected versionversion=d4cc2dff12116a700add601c0262132cc26e1b2c <de83ff6a4d8f3618473bedb3c4400020c22e8a8a
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Activity data is delayed. The latest report is Sep 28, 2026.
Weakness, pattern, technique
No sourced classifications are available.
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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