Bug 2433927 (CVE-2026-23553) - CVE-2026-23553 xen: x86: incomplete IBPB for vCPU isolation
Summary: CVE-2026-23553 xen: x86: incomplete IBPB for vCPU isolation
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-23553
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
low
low
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On: 2434047 2434048
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-01-28 16:01 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-01-28 17:48 UTC (History)
0 users

Fixed In Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-01-28 16:01:46 UTC
In the context switch logic Xen attempts to skip an IBPB in the case of
a vCPU returning to a CPU on which it was the previous vCPU to run.
While safe for Xen's isolation between vCPUs, this prevents the guest
kernel correctly isolating between tasks.  Consider:

 1) vCPU runs on CPU A, running task 1.
 2) vCPU moves to CPU B, idle gets scheduled on A.  Xen skips IBPB.
 3) On CPU B, guest kernel switches from task 1 to 2, issuing IBPB.
 4) vCPU moves back to CPU A.  Xen skips IBPB again.

Now, task 2 is running on CPU A with task 1's training still in the BTB.


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