CVE-2026-45890: xen-netback: reject zero-queue configuration from guest

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-05-27 · updated 2026-06-25

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xen-netback: reject zero-queue configuration from guest A malicious or buggy Xen guest can write "0" to the xenbus key "multi-queue-num-queues". The connect() function in the backend only validates the upper bound (requested_num_queues > xenvif_max_queues) but not zero, allowing requested_num_queues=0 to reach vzalloc(array_size(0, sizeof(struct xenvif_queue))), which triggers WARN_ON_ONCE(!size) in __vmalloc_node_range(). On systems with panic_on_warn=1, this allows a guest-to-host denial of service. The Xen network interface specification requires the queue count to be "greater than zero". Add a zero check to match the validation already present in xen-blkback, which has included this guard since its multi-queue support was added.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 3.16 before 5.10.252; from 5.11 before 5.15.202; from 5.16 before 6.1.165; from 6.2 before 6.6.128; from 6.7 before 6.12.75; from 6.13 before 6.18.14 — fixed in 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165, 6.12.75, 6.18.14, 6.19.4

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165, 6.12.75. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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