Bug 2482176 (CVE-2026-45987)

Summary:	CVE-2026-45987 kernel: KVM: nSVM: Sync interrupt shadow to cached vmcb12 after VMRUN of L2
Product:	[Other] Security Response	Reporter:	OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component:	vulnerability	Assignee:	Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status:	NEW ---	QA Contact:
Severity:	low	Docs Contact:
Priority:	low
Version:	unspecified	CC:	rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone:	---	Keywords:	Security
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	---
Doc Text:	A flaw was found in the KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) nSVM component of the Linux kernel. This vulnerability occurs when the interrupt shadow state is not correctly synchronized to the cached Virtual Machine Control Block (VMCB) after a Level 2 (L2) guest virtual machine (VM) execution. A local attacker with control over an L1 guest could potentially exploit this by manipulating the order of KVM API calls during VM state restoration. This could lead to a guest virtual CPU (vCPU) hang, resulting in a denial of service for the affected L2 guest.	Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:		Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
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Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-05-27 15:14:55 UTC

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

KVM: nSVM: Sync interrupt shadow to cached vmcb12 after VMRUN of L2

After VMRUN in guest mode, nested_sync_control_from_vmcb02() syncs
fields written by the CPU from vmcb02 to the cached vmcb12. This is
because the cached vmcb12 is used as the authoritative copy of some of
the controls, and is the payload when saving/restoring nested state.

int_state is also written by the CPU, specifically bit 0 (i.e.
SVM_INTERRUPT_SHADOW_MASK) for nested VMs, but it is not sync'd to
cached vmcb12. This does not cause a problem if KVM_SET_NESTED_STATE
preceeds KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS in the restore path, as an interrupt shadow
would be correctly restored to vmcb02 (KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS overwrites
what KVM_SET_NESTED_STATE restored in int_state).

However, if KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS preceeds KVM_SET_NESTED_STATE, an
interrupt shadow would be restored into vmcb01 instead of vmcb02. This
would mostly be benign for L1 (delays an interrupt), but not for L2. For
L2, the vCPU could hang (e.g. if a wakeup interrupt is delivered before
a HLT that should have been in an interrupt shadow).

Sync int_state to the cached vmcb12 in nested_sync_control_from_vmcb02()
to avoid this problem. With that, KVM_SET_NESTED_STATE restores the
correct interrupt shadow state, and if KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS follows it
would overwrite it with the same value.

Comment 1 Keith Grant 2026-05-27 21:58:53 UTC

Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026052738-CVE-2026-45987-c25b@gregkh/T