Bug 2394627 (CVE-2025-40300)

Summary: CVE-2025-40300 kernel: x86/vmscape: Add conditional IBPB mitigation
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
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Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedKeywords: Security
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OS: Linux   
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In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: x86/vmscape: Add conditional IBPB mitigation VMSCAPE is a vulnerability that exploits insufficient branch predictor isolation between a guest and a userspace hypervisor (like QEMU). Existing mitigations already protect kernel/KVM from a malicious guest. Userspace can additionally be protected by flushing the branch predictors after a VMexit. Since it is the userspace that consumes the poisoned branch predictors, conditionally issue an IBPB after a VMexit and before returning to userspace. Workloads that frequently switch between hypervisor and userspace will incur the most overhead from the new IBPB. This new IBPB is not integrated with the existing IBPB sites. For instance, a task can use the existing speculation control prctl() to get an IBPB at context switch time. With this implementation, the IBPB is doubled up: one at context switch and another before running userspace. The intent is to integrate and optimize these cases post-embargo. [ dhansen: elaborate on suboptimal IBPB solution ]
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-09-11 17:03:18 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

x86/vmscape: Add conditional IBPB mitigation

VMSCAPE is a vulnerability that exploits insufficient branch predictor
isolation between a guest and a userspace hypervisor (like QEMU). Existing
mitigations already protect kernel/KVM from a malicious guest. Userspace
can additionally be protected by flushing the branch predictors after a
VMexit.

Since it is the userspace that consumes the poisoned branch predictors,
conditionally issue an IBPB after a VMexit and before returning to
userspace. Workloads that frequently switch between hypervisor and
userspace will incur the most overhead from the new IBPB.

This new IBPB is not integrated with the existing IBPB sites. For
instance, a task can use the existing speculation control prctl() to
get an IBPB at context switch time. With this implementation, the
IBPB is doubled up: one at context switch and another before running
userspace.

The intent is to integrate and optimize these cases post-embargo.

[ dhansen: elaborate on suboptimal IBPB solution ]

Comment 4 errata-xmlrpc 2025-11-10 00:59:17 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

Via RHSA-2025:19932 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:19932

Comment 5 errata-xmlrpc 2025-11-10 01:02:27 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

Via RHSA-2025:19930 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:19930

Comment 6 errata-xmlrpc 2025-11-10 01:17:41 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

Via RHSA-2025:19931 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:19931

Comment 7 errata-xmlrpc 2025-11-12 11:25:13 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

Via RHSA-2025:21112 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:21112

Comment 8 errata-xmlrpc 2025-11-12 12:22:14 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10

Via RHSA-2025:21118 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:21118

Comment 9 Mauro Matteo Cascella 2025-11-14 10:57:00 UTC
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025091128-CVE-2025-40300-5569@gregkh/

Comment 11 errata-xmlrpc 2025-11-19 12:27:24 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4 Extended Update Support

Via RHSA-2025:21760 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:21760

Comment 13 errata-xmlrpc 2025-11-25 00:37:18 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support
  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Update Services for SAP Solutions
  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Telecommunications Update Service

Via RHSA-2025:22006 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22006

Comment 14 errata-xmlrpc 2025-11-25 10:35:21 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0 Update Services for SAP Solutions

Via RHSA-2025:22066 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22066

Comment 15 errata-xmlrpc 2025-11-25 12:31:13 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Update Services for SAP Solutions
  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Telecommunications Update Service

Via RHSA-2025:22072 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22072

Comment 16 errata-xmlrpc 2025-11-25 16:04:50 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0 Update Services for SAP Solutions

Via RHSA-2025:22087 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22087

Comment 17 errata-xmlrpc 2025-11-25 17:16:06 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 Update Services for SAP Solutions

Via RHSA-2025:22095 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22095

Comment 18 errata-xmlrpc 2025-11-25 18:13:51 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 Update Services for SAP Solutions

Via RHSA-2025:22124 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22124

Comment 19 errata-xmlrpc 2026-01-08 00:32:19 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.0 Extended Update Support

Via RHSA-2026:0271 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:0271