Bug 2516998 (CVE-2026-74516)

Summary: CVE-2026-74516 kernel: KVM: SVM: Update x2APIC MSR intercepts if AVIC is inhibited while L2 is active
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: high    
Version: unspecifiedCC: akhatavk, aos-team-art-private, asdas, dpaolell, jdelft, jupierce, lgarciaa, mbiarnes, ppalepu, ppostler, prdhamdh, rhel-process-autobot, sghai, sidsharm, suppawar, vlaad, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine). When the Advanced Virtual Interrupt Controller (AVIC) is inhibited while a nested guest (L2) is active, KVM fails to properly update x2APIC MSR intercepts for the primary guest (L1). This allows the L1 guest to read the host's APIC state, send arbitrary interrupts, and change task priority, ultimately leading to a Denial of Service (DoS) of the host system.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 12:43:52 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

KVM: SVM: Update x2APIC MSR intercepts if AVIC is inhibited while L2 is active

Always update x2APIC MSR intercepts for L1 when AVIC is deactivated, even
if L2 is active and KVM is using a separate MSR bitmap to run L2.  If AVIC
is fully enabled prior to running L2, and is then inhibited while L2 is
active (for a VM-scoped inhibit), then KVM will run L1 with AVIC disabled,
but with x2APIC MSR intercepts disabled, i.e. will allow L1 to read most of
the host's APIC state, send arbitrary interrupts, change task priority, and
ultimately trivially DoS the host.

E.g. sending a self-IPI in L1 on HYPERV_REENLIGHTENMENT_VECTOR, 0xee, with
CONFIG_HYPERV=n in the host kernel as a "safe" PoC, yields:

  Spurious interrupt (vector 0xee) on CPU#425. Acked

And hacking KVM to abuse kvm_set_posted_intr_wakeup_handler() to register a
handler and WARN on POSTED_INTR_WAKEUP_VECTOR yields:

  ------------[ cut here ]------------
  WARNING: arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c:5594 at pi_wakeup_handler+0x9/0x10 [kvm_amd], CPU#156: nested_x2apic_t/316940
  CPU: 156 UID: 0 PID: 316940 Comm: nested_x2apic_t Tainted: G S   U
  Tainted: [S]=CPU_OUT_OF_SPEC, [U]=USER
  Hardware name: Google Astoria-Turin/astoria, BIOS 0.20260209.0-0 02/09/2026
  RIP: 0010:pi_wakeup_handler+0x9/0x10 [kvm_amd]
  Call Trace:
   <IRQ>
   sysvec_kvm_posted_intr_wakeup_ipi+0x64/0x80
   </IRQ>
   <TASK>
   asm_sysvec_kvm_posted_intr_wakeup_ipi+0x1a/0x20
  RIP: 0010:vcpu_run+0x1430/0x1e40 [kvm]
   kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x2c1/0x600 [kvm]
   kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x580/0x6b0 [kvm]
   __se_sys_ioctl+0x6d/0xb0
   do_syscall_64+0x10a/0x480
   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53
  RIP: 0033:0x46ff4b
   </TASK>
  ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---