Our infrastructure team is finalizing our response to CVE-2026-99999, also known as “PwnEscape,” a Linux kernel vulnerability that can affect KVM-based virtualization environments and is not specific to RackNerd.
As soon as details emerged regarding this CVE, our infrastructure team began assessing exposure and implementing live patches and mitigations across our infrastructure. Throughout this response, we have been meticulously reviewing our KVM VPS fleet node by node, verifying the protection status of each host to ensure nothing is overlooked. The majority of our host nodes are already running verified live patches applied during this ongoing response, without requiring a reboot or service interruption. And therefore, most customers will not need to experience a reboot or any interruption.
At this time, we will now be completing the remaining verification and maintenance steps. During this process, a small number of host nodes may require a reboot, if live patching was either not possible or could not be fully verified. Out of an abundance of caution, we will reboot these nodes into patched kernels and verify that the required protections are active.
Customers on these remaining nodes may experience a brief VPS reboot, with downtime expected to last less than 10 minutes in most cases. Our infrastructure team will closely monitor the reboot process, checking each node individually and verifying that its VPS services return online properly before considering that node’s maintenance complete. No customer action is required for this host-level maintenance.
We have been closely monitoring our infrastructure throughout this response and have not identified any evidence of exploitation or compromise affecting RackNerd or our customers in connection with this vulnerability. This maintenance is part of our proactive security response and final verification process.
Security remains our top priority, and we appreciate your patience and understanding as we complete these final steps. We will update this notice once the remaining maintenance and verification work is complete.
UPDATE: Maintenance Complete - Final Verification in Progress
Our infrastructure team has completed the required host-node reboots associated with our response to CVE-2026-99999, also known as “PwnEscape.” All host nodes rebooted as part of this maintenance are back online.
Nodes that did not reboot were already livepatched successfully earlier.
We are now completing final verification checks across our KVM VPS fleet, checking each host individually to confirm that the required protections are active and services are operating normally. Our team continues to closely monitor the fleet throughout this final validation process.
Once again, we have not identified any evidence of exploitation or compromise affecting RackNerd or our customers in connection with this vulnerability. This work remains part of our proactive security response, and no customer action is required.
FINAL UPDATE: Maintenance and Verification Complete
Our infrastructure team has completed all maintenance and final verification checks associated with our response to CVE-2026-99999, also known as “PwnEscape.” We have now verified that 100% of our KVM VPS fleet is protected against this vulnerability.
For customers whose VPS rebooted today, the underlying host node required a reboot because live patching was either not possible or could not be fully verified. Those nodes were rebooted into patched kernels, brought back online, and individually checked to confirm that the required protections are active.
For customers whose VPS did not reboot, the required live patch had already been successfully applied and verified on the underlying host node, allowing protection to be implemented without a reboot or service interruption.
We are pleased to report that throughout this response, we have not identified any evidence of exploitation or compromise affecting RackNerd or our customers in connection with this vulnerability. This was a proactive security response and was not related to any known security incident.
No customer action is required. If you have any questions or are still experiencing any issues with your VPS, please contact our support team so we can investigate and assist.
Security remains our top priority, and we sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding while our team completed this work.
