AI-Found Linux Kernel Flaw Gives Local Users Root, and Can Break a Guest Out to the Host
Linux vhost flaw CVE-2026-74580 lets local users gain root and, in some setups, escape a guest to the host.
Tencent Zhuque Lab disclosed CVE-2026-74580, named Vghost, a Linux vhost bug present from kernel 4.11 through 7.2-rc4. A local user can read and write kernel memory, bypass KASLR, and become root; with virtio behind a virtual IOMMU in device-IOTLB mode, a guest can write into the host QEMU process and hijack it. Working demos were published on October 12, but no in-the-wild exploitation is reported. kernel.org scores it 8.8, while Red Hat and Oracle score 7.3 and Amazon 7.8; Red Hat, Amazon Linux, and Oracle Linux have shipped fixes, and some Ubuntu kernels were still in progress as of October 13.
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