vhost: fix vhost_get_avail_idx for a non empty ring
CVE-2026-74356 · published 15 Aug 2026
How serious is it
- Severity: high, CVSS score 7.4 out of 10.
- No exploit prediction (EPSS) score yet.
- Not on the CISA list of exploited vulnerabilities.
- No public exploit in Exploit-DB.
Is your app affected by CVE-2026-74356?
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Who is affected
- Linux Linux: d3bb267bbdcba199568f1325743d9d501dea0560 to < 0fe5ca2d56f0122988016e415a074c95925504b7, d3bb267bbdcba199568f1325743d9d501dea0560 to < e115471008111f894c6528d9ab2ce7d0ce306f35, d3bb267bbdcba199568f1325743d9d501dea0560 to < 7f229d27bf27c7e589eca690d8612763a7a4801f, d3bb267bbdcba199568f1325743d9d501dea0560 to < a9326b652bc7acd748d7a1143573845c7924d847
- Linux Linux: 5.18
How to check
- Find out whether you run the affected product and which version, then compare it with the versions above.
How to fix
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- Apply the vendor's update or mitigation from the references below. If there is none yet, limit exposure of the affected service until there is.
- If a vulnerable version was live, check your logs and rotate the secrets that server could read.
The advisory
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
vhost: fix vhost_get_avail_idx for a non empty ring
vhost_get_avail_idx is supposed to report whether it has updated
vq->avail_idx. Instead, it returns whether all entries have been
consumed, which is usually the same. But not always - in
drivers/vhost/net.c and when mergeable buffers have been enabled, the
driver checks whether the combined entries are big enough to store an
incoming packet. If not, the driver re-enables notifications with
available entries still in the ring. The incorrect return value from
vhost_get_avail_idx propagates through vhost_enable_notify and causes
the host to livelock if the guest is not making progress, as vhost will
immediately disable notifications and retry using the available entries.
This goes back to commit d3bb267bbdcb ("vhost: cache avail index in
vhost_enable_notify()") which changed vhost_enable_notify() to compare
the freshly read avail index against vq->last_avail_idx instead of the
previously cached vq->avail_idx. Commit 7ad472397667 ("vhost: move
smp_rmb() into vhost_get_avail_idx()") then carried over the same
comparison when refactoring vhost_enable_notify() to call the unified
vhost_get_avail_idx().
The obvious fix is to make vhost_get_avail_idx do what the comment
says it does and report whether new entries have been added.
Check your whole app
Dependencies are only half of it. Free and read-only: before you push, run npx shippable-dev scan localhost:3000 in your project folder, no account needed. For your live app, you prove it's yours with a one-line tag first.
References
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/0fe5ca2d56f0122988016e415a074c95925504b7
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/e115471008111f894c6528d9ab2ce7d0ce306f35
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/7f229d27bf27c7e589eca690d8612763a7a4801f
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/a9326b652bc7acd748d7a1143573845c7924d847
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/09861858a68342f851f71c669ac0f69865c32151
Merged from CVE List. Last updated 25 Oct 2026. All vulnerabilities · RSS · JSON