Bug 2391059 (CVE-2025-38508) - CVE-2025-38508 kernel: x86/sev: Use TSC_FACTOR for Secure TSC frequency calculation
Summary: CVE-2025-38508 kernel: x86/sev: Use TSC_FACTOR for Secure TSC frequency calcu...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2025-38508
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2025-08-26 15:09 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2025-08-26 16:10 UTC (History)
0 users

Fixed In Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-08-26 15:09:05 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

x86/sev: Use TSC_FACTOR for Secure TSC frequency calculation

When using Secure TSC, the GUEST_TSC_FREQ MSR reports a frequency based on
the nominal P0 frequency, which deviates slightly (typically ~0.2%) from
the actual mean TSC frequency due to clocking parameters.

Over extended VM uptime, this discrepancy accumulates, causing clock skew
between the hypervisor and a SEV-SNP VM, leading to early timer interrupts as
perceived by the guest.

The guest kernel relies on the reported nominal frequency for TSC-based
timekeeping, while the actual frequency set during SNP_LAUNCH_START may
differ. This mismatch results in inaccurate time calculations, causing the
guest to perceive hrtimers as firing earlier than expected.

Utilize the TSC_FACTOR from the SEV firmware's secrets page (see "Secrets
Page Format" in the SNP Firmware ABI Specification) to calculate the mean
TSC frequency, ensuring accurate timekeeping and mitigating clock skew in
SEV-SNP VMs.

Use early_ioremap_encrypted() to map the secrets page as
ioremap_encrypted() uses kmalloc() which is not available during early TSC
initialization and causes a panic.

  [ bp: Drop the silly dummy var:
    https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250630192726.GBaGLlHl84xIopx4Pt@fat_crate.local ]


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