CVE-2026-5164 Virtio-win: virtio-win: denial of service via unvalidated descriptor count in unmap request

Medium 6.7 Published 30 Mar 2026 Updated 28 Apr 2026

A local attacker can cause a system crash and denial of service by supplying an excessive number of descriptors in a virtio-win unmap request.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: An administrator
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: None listed

What is CVE-2026-5164?

CVE-2026-5164 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux, published on 30 Mar 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A flaw was found in virtio-win. The `RhelDoUnMap()` function does not properly validate the number of descriptors provided by a user during an unmap request. A local user could exploit this input validation vulnerability by supplying an excessive number of descriptors, leading to a buffer overrun. This can cause a system crash, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).

Weakness: CWE-120

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-5164?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Redhat Enterprise Linux, Redhat Virtio-Win.

How do I fix CVE-2026-5164?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-5164 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2026-5164 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-5164 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Redhat Enterprise Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-6457-73j6-h3qg.