CVE-2026-97989

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's vDPA Device in Userspace (VDUSE) subsystem. The driver does not properly validate virtqueue alignment parameters during device configuration, allowing invalid or zero alignment values to pass into internal queue creation routines. A local user could exploit this flaw by providing invalid configuration settings, triggering a null pointer dereference that crashes the system and leads to a Denial of Service (DoS).

A low impact flaw was found in the Linux kernel's vDPA Device in Userspace (VDUSE) subsystem. In Red Hat product streams that include the VDUSE subsystem (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 and 10, Red Hat In-Vehicle OS, and OpenShift Container Platform releases shipping affected RHEL 9-based kernels), the driver does not properly validate virtqueue alignment parameters during device configuration: vduse_validate_config() only checks the upper bound of vq_align, so zero or non-power-of-two alignment values can reach the virtio ring helpers, leaving the used ring pointer NULL. A local user with the administrative privileges required to create and configure VDUSE devices could supply an invalid alignment value when creating a device, and bringing the resulting virtio-net device up triggers a NULL pointer dereference in virtqueue_kick_prepare_split(), crashing the kernel and causing a denial of service. Red Hat product streams that do not contain the VDUSE subsystem, such as earlier Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions and minor streams, are not affected because the vulnerable code is not present. Although the Red Hat CVSS 3.1 base score is 5.5 (Moderate), Red Hat assesses the overall impact of this flaw as Low because exploitation requires local administrative privileges and only availability is affected, with no confidentiality or integrity impact. The fix is currently deferred for the affected streams; the residual risk is limited to a locally privileged user triggering a kernel crash and denial of service.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.