CVE-2026-99017riscv: errata: select RISCV_ALTERNATIVE_EARLY for THEAD GHOSTWRITE
- 7.0HighCVSS base score
- 0.16%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 94% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: riscv: errata: select RISCV_ALTERNATIVE_EARLY for THEAD GHOSTWRITE errata_probe_ghostwrite() only marks the CPU as vulnerable when it is called at the RISCV_ALTERNATIVES_EARLY_BOOT stage, and the mitigation in ghostwrite_enable_mitigation() only takes effect if the vulnerable state was recorded before the boot alternatives are patched. The early boot stage is only executed when CONFIG_RISCV_ALTERNATIVE_EARLY is enabled, which currently is only selected by ERRATA_THEAD_MAE. In a kernel built with ERRATA_THEAD_GHOSTWRITE=y but ERRATA_THEAD_MAE=n, the early alternatives never run, so ghostwrite_state is never set to VULNERABLE: ghostwrite_enable_mitigation() returns false, xtheadvector remains enabled, and sysfs reports "Not affected" on a vulnerable T-Head C9xx CPU. Select RISCV_ALTERNATIVE_EARLY from ERRATA_THEAD_GHOSTWRITE so that the vulnerability is detected in the early boot stage and the default mitigation is applied.
Timeline
ID reserved
By Linux
- 28 days later
· 28 days later
Published
- 1 day later
· 1 day later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| LinuxCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Received | 3.1 | High7.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.16% · top 94% of all CVEs (12 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.0.
Affected products
- affected 4bf97069239bcfca9840936313c7ac35a6e04488 – < fa465a7819ecbe5801b78c088d3cadaf2664b8ca
- affected 4bf97069239bcfca9840936313c7ac35a6e04488 – < 7fee577a2fa78b9a76da015beec1ccf978746ebb
- affected 4bf97069239bcfca9840936313c7ac35a6e04488 – < 298510bbc7c3017c0faf481c6ea66f1065b657b4
- affected 6.14
- unaffected < 6.14
- unaffected 6.18.57 – ≤ 6.18.*
- unaffected 7.2.11 – ≤ 7.2.*
- unaffected 7.3 – ≤ *
References
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2026-108811 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2026-99017)Record last updated .