# CVE-2026-64457: virtio_pci: fix vq info pointer lookup via wrong index

> A local attacker with high privileges can trigger a kernel crash by unbinding a virtio balloon device due to a NULL pointer dereference.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 25 Jul 2026
- **Updated:** 17 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-64457, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-64457, GHSA-gqwv-4rwr-x42g, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-64457, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-64457

## What is CVE-2026-64457?

CVE-2026-64457 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 25 Jul 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

virtio_pci: fix vq info pointer lookup via wrong index

Unbinding a virtio balloon device:

    echo virtio0 > /sys/bus/virtio/drivers/virtio_balloon/unbind

triggers a NULL pointer dereference. The dmesg says:

    BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000008
    [...]
    RIP: 0010:__list_del_entry_valid_or_report+0x5/0xf0
    Call Trace:
    <TASK>
    vp_del_vqs+0x121/0x230
    remove_common+0x135/0x150
    virtballoon_remove+0xee/0x100
    virtio_dev_remove+0x3b/0x80
    device_release_driver_internal+0x187/0x2c0
    unbind_store+0xb9/0xe0
    kernfs_fop_write_iter.llvm.11660790530567441834+0xf6/0x180
    vfs_write+0x2a9/0x3b0
    ksys_write+0x5c/0xd0
    do_syscall_64+0x54/0x230
    entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x29/0x31
    [...]
    </TASK>

The virtio_balloon device registers 5 queues (inflate, deflate, stats,
free_page, reporting) but only the first two are unconditional. The
stats, free_page and reporting queues are each conditional on their
respective feature bits. When any of these features are absent, the
corresponding vqs_info entry has name == NULL, creating holes in the
array.

The root cause is an indexing mismatch introduced when vq info storage
was changed to be passed as an argument. vp_find_vqs_msix() and
vp_find_vqs_intx() store the info pointer at vp_dev->vqs[i], where 'i'
is the caller's sparse array index. However, the virtqueue itself gets
vq->index assigned from queue_idx, a dense index that skips NULL
entries. When holes exist, 'i' and queue_idx diverge. Later,
vp_del_vqs() looks up info via vp_dev->vqs[vq->index] using the dense
index into the sparsely-populated array, and hits NULL.

Fix this by storing info at vp_dev->vqs[queue_idx] instead of
vp_dev->vqs[i], so the store index matches the lookup index
(vq->index). Apply the fix to both the MSIX and INTX paths.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-64457?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-64457?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-64457 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-64457 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-64457 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-64457 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 25 Jul 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-64457 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-64457/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-64457/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-64457
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-64457
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-64457

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-64457/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.