{"answers":{"affected":"","exploited":"There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-97996 in the wild and no public exploit code.","fix":"Apply the vendor's patch.","what":"CVE-2026-97996 is an use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 25 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim."},"fix_prompt":"Check this codebase for CVE-2026-97996 and fix it if it is affected.\n\nWhat it is: CVE-2026-97996 is an use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 25 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.\nExploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-97996 in the wild and no public exploit code.\n\nAffected product: Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.\n\nTask:\n1. 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.\n2. 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.\n3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.\n4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.\n5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.\n\nReference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-97996/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-97996/index.md)","id":"CVE-2026-97996","markdown":"https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-97996/index.md","name":"CVE-2026-97996","record":{"aliases":["BELL-CVE-2026-97996","DEBIAN-CVE-2026-97996","GHSA-gfg9-4r2g-565g","UBUNTU-CVE-2026-97996"],"analysis":{"component_type":"kernel","fix_type":"patch","impacts":["code_execution","privilege_escalation"],"network_reachable":"adjacent_or_local","non_default_config":true,"product_category":"Linux kernel","requires_auth":"low_privilege","summary":"A use-after-free in the Linux kernel virtio subsystem allows local attackers to potentially execute code or escalate privileges when unbinding specific virtio devices.","user_interaction":"not_required","vuln_class":"use_after_free"},"analysis_generated_by":"qwen3.8-flash-next","assigner":"Linux","cpe":[],"cvss":{"score":null,"severity":null,"source":null,"vector":null,"version":null},"cwes":[],"description":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nvirtio: fix use-after-free in unregister_virtio_device()\n\ndevice_unregister() is device_del() plus put_device(). When the caller\nholds no extra reference, that drops the last one and runs the release\ncallback, which for several transports frees the memory the embedded\nstruct virtio_device sits in. unregister_virtio_device() then calls\nvirtio_debug_device_exit(), which reads dev-\u003edebugfs_dir out of the freed\nobject.\n\nAffected transports are the ones whose release callback frees and whose\nremove path takes no reference: virtio_mmio, virtio_vdpa, virtio_uml,\nmlxbf-tmfifo and virtio_ccw. virtio_pci is unaffected because\nvirtio_pci_remove() brackets the call with get_device() and put_device().\n\nRemove the debugfs entries before the device can go away. They are only\naccessed through the protected debugfs interface, so\ndebugfs_remove_recursive() waits for in-progress file operations before\nreturning. Tearing them down while the device is still alive is therefore\nsafe.\n\nReproduced on User-Mode Linux with CONFIG_KASAN and CONFIG_VIRTIO_DEBUG\nby unbinding a virtio-uml device:\n\n  BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in virtio_debug_device_exit+0x36/0x4d\n  Read of size 8 at addr 00000000616e0b10 by task init/1\n   __asan_report_load8_noabort\n   virtio_debug_device_exit+0x36/0x4d\n   unregister_virtio_device+0x48/0x75\n   virtio_uml_remove\n   platform_remove\n   device_release_driver_internal\n   unbind_store\n\n  Freed by task 1:\n   kfree\n   virtio_uml_release_dev\n   device_release\n   kobject_put\n   put_device\n   device_unregister\n\nWith this applied, the report is gone and unbind is clean.","ecosystems":[],"exploits":{"exploitdb":0,"first_seen":null,"github_poc":0,"max_poc_stars":null,"metasploit":0,"nuclei":0,"refs":[],"tier":"none_known"},"has_fix":true,"headline":"virtio: fix use-after-free in unregister_virtio_device()","id":"CVE-2026-97996","indexable":true,"kev":null,"kind":"cve","links":{"ecosystem":null,"product":null,"products":[],"type":"use_after_free","year":"2026"},"n_packages":0,"n_references":4,"next":{"headline":"virtio_ring: fix stale descriptor flags after a failed packed add","id":"CVE-2026-97997"},"packages":[],"prev":{"headline":"virtio_console: do not free control-out buffers on remove","id":"CVE-2026-97995"},"products":["Linux"],"published":"2026-09-25","related":[],"sources":[{"class":"attribution","licence":"CVE Terms of Use (MITRE)","name":"CVE List","prefix":"CVE"}],"ssvc":{"automatable":null,"exploitation":null,"technical_impact":null},"state":"PUBLISHED","updated":"2026-10-19","vendors":["Linux"]},"summary":"A use-after-free in the Linux kernel virtio subsystem allows local attackers to potentially execute code or escalate privileges when unbinding specific virtio devices.","url":"https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-97996/"}