In the Linux kernel a use‑after‑free occurs in page reporting when the system enters a power‑management freeze such as S3 or S4. During suspend the balloon driver deletes its virtqueues while a work item scheduled on the global system_wq continues to run. Because that queue is not marked freezable, it is not frozen by the power‑management core, and the work attempts to access the already‑freed virtqueues, triggering a general protection fault and a kernel panic. The flaw enables an attacker who can force the system into suspend (or create the required memory‑pressure conditions) to cause a denial of service.

The vulnerability affects the Linux operating system kernel. Any kernel version that implements the pre‑fixed page reporting logic and loads the virtio_balloon driver before the fix is applied is impacted. The specific affected releases are not enumerated, but the patch is contained in the commit referenced in the kernel repository.

The CVSS score of 7.8 indicates a high impact, as it can bring the kernel down when the device driver resets its virtqueues during suspend. The EPSS score is < 1%, indicating a very low exploitation probability, and the vulnerability is not listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Exploitation requires the system to undergo a suspend or hibernation cycle and have a compatible device driver in use, making it a niche scenario. An attacker with local privileges or the ability to trigger suspend/resume would be able to fault the host.