Bug 2555118 (CVE-2026-98718) - CVE-2026-98718 kernel: KVM: SEV: Do cache maintenance on the source VM *before* clearing SEV state
Summary: CVE-2026-98718 kernel: KVM: SEV: Do cache maintenance on the source VM *befor...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-98718
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
high
high
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-10-18 15:55 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-10-22 16:05 UTC (History)
17 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-18 15:55:28 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

KVM: SEV: Do cache maintenance on the source VM *before* clearing SEV state

Explicitly flush caches after intra-host migration before clearing "SEV
active" on the source VM, as doing cache maintenance afterwards creates a
tiny window where memory reclaim could return memory to the host without
performing a cache flush, e.g. as pointed out by Sashiko:

  CPU1 in sev_migrate_from():
    src->active = false;

  CPU2 running concurrent unmap:
    Since active is false, the automatic cache flush in
    sev_guest_memory_reclaimed is skipped.
    The host frees and reallocates the page.

  CPU1 in sev_migrate_from():
    sev_writeback_caches(src_kvm);
    Executes a hardware cache flush (wbnoinvd), which writes the guest's old
    dirty ciphertext over the new page owner's data.


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