Bug 2461536 (CVE-2026-31593)

Summary: CVE-2026-31593 kernel: KVM: SEV: Reject attempts to sync VMSA of an already-launched/encrypted vCPU
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) virtualization module. When Secure Nested Paging (SNP) is enabled, an attempt to update the state of an already running and encrypted virtual machine can cause the host system to crash. This vulnerability leads to a Denial of Service (DoS) for the host, making the system unavailable.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-04-24 15:07:12 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

KVM: SEV: Reject attempts to sync VMSA of an already-launched/encrypted vCPU

Reject synchronizing vCPU state to its associated VMSA if the vCPU has
already been launched, i.e. if the VMSA has already been encrypted.  On a
host with SNP enabled, accessing guest-private memory generates an RMP #PF
and panics the host.

  BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ff1276cbfdf36000
  #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode
  #PF: error_code(0x80000003) - RMP violation
  PGD 5a31801067 P4D 5a31802067 PUD 40ccfb5063 PMD 40e5954063 PTE 80000040fdf36163
  SEV-SNP: PFN 0x40fdf36, RMP entry: [0x6010fffffffff001 - 0x000000000000001f]
  Oops: Oops: 0003 [#1] SMP NOPTI
  CPU: 33 UID: 0 PID: 996180 Comm: qemu-system-x86 Tainted: G           OE
  Tainted: [O]=OOT_MODULE, [E]=UNSIGNED_MODULE
  Hardware name: Dell Inc. PowerEdge R7625/0H1TJT, BIOS 1.5.8 07/21/2023
  RIP: 0010:sev_es_sync_vmsa+0x54/0x4c0 [kvm_amd]
  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   snp_launch_update_vmsa+0x19d/0x290 [kvm_amd]
   snp_launch_finish+0xb6/0x380 [kvm_amd]
   sev_mem_enc_ioctl+0x14e/0x720 [kvm_amd]
   kvm_arch_vm_ioctl+0x837/0xcf0 [kvm]
   kvm_vm_ioctl+0x3fd/0xcc0 [kvm]
   __x64_sys_ioctl+0xa3/0x100
   x64_sys_call+0xfe0/0x2350
   do_syscall_64+0x81/0x10f0
   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
  RIP: 0033:0x7ffff673287d
   </TASK>

Note, the KVM flaw has been present since commit ad73109ae7ec ("KVM: SVM:
Provide support to launch and run an SEV-ES guest"), but has only been
actively dangerous for the host since SNP support was added.  With SEV-ES,
KVM would "just" clobber guest state, which is totally fine from a host
kernel perspective since userspace can clobber guest state any time before
sev_launch_update_vmsa().