# CVE-2026-72288: KVM: arm64: vgic: Handle race between interrupt affinity change and LPI disabling

> A race condition in the Linux kernel's KVM arm64 virtual interrupt controller allows attackers to trigger a use-after-free, potentially leading to code execution or privilege escalation.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 15 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 21 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-72288, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72288, GHSA-9726-h75p-mc3x, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72288

## What is CVE-2026-72288?

CVE-2026-72288 is a critical use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 Aug 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:

KVM: arm64: vgic: Handle race between interrupt affinity change and LPI disabling

Hyunwoo Kim reports some really bad races should the following
situation occur:

- LPI-I is pending in vcpu-B's AP list
- vcpu-A writes to vcpu-B's RD to disable its LPIs
- vcpu-C moves I from B to C

If the last two race nicely enough, vgic_prune_ap_list() can drop
the irq and AP list locks, reacquire them, and in the interval
the irq has been freed. UAF follows.

The fix is two-fold:

- Before dropping the irq and ap_list locks, take a reference on
  the irq

- Do not try to handle migration of the pending bit: there is no
  expectation that this state is retained, as per the architecture

With that, we're sure that the interrupt is still around, and we
safely remove it from the AP list as it has no target at this
stage (unless another interrupt fires, but that's another story).

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72288?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-72288?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-72288 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72288 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-72288 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-72288 is a critical use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 Aug 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-2026-72288 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-2026-72288/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-72288/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-72288
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-72288
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-72288

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-72288/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.