Veeam, a leader in backup solutions, has warned its customers of a critical technical issue that causes boot failures for its Software Appliance virtual machines (VMs) when running on servers equipped with AMD EPYC processors. This issue causes a Kernel Panic, which can disrupt backup operations and data management.
Technical Details
The root of the problem lies in the Linux kernel used in Veeam Software Appliance 13.1 and later versions. To comply with government and corporate security frameworks, the kernel operates in FIPS mode, which requires performing integrity and cryptographic tests (such as jitterentropy tests) during early boot stages.
According to the alert issued by the company, these tests fail intermittently on certain AMD EPYC processor models, specifically: 7262, 7302, and 7F72. When the test fails, the boot process stops immediately and displays the error message: "Kernel panic - not syncing: jitterentropy: Initialization failed with host not compliant with requirements: 9".
Why This News Matters
This issue is of critical importance due to the reliance of a wide segment of digital infrastructure on Veeam solutions; the company serves more than 550,000 customers, including 82% of the Fortune 500. The stability of backup tools is the cornerstone of business continuity, and any failure in booting these systems could leave organizations without sufficient protection in emergencies. This issue also places system administrators in a dilemma between maintaining security compliance standards (FIPS) and ensuring server stability.
Mitigation Measures and Available Solutions
Veeam has provided a set of recommendations for IT administrators to handle this situation:
- Redeployment: It is preferred to redeploy the virtual appliance on a server using a different processor that is not affected by the issue.
- Update Management: If changing the processor is not possible, automatic updates should be disabled and updates should be installed manually while closely monitoring the reboot process.
- Emergency Procedure: If a Kernel Panic occurs, the virtual machine must be completely shut down and then powered back on; simply rebooting the guest OS will not resolve the issue.
In a related context, the company indicated that it is also working on addressing a critical vulnerability in the Linux kernel (CVE-2026-98432) that affects some of its components, which could allow attackers to execute commands with root privileges remotely, and it has already begun deploying the necessary fixes via its updates.