Vulnerability-Lookup

GHSA-HF2P-VJQM-2XW6

Vulnerability from github – Published: 2026-10-18 18:32 – Updated: 2026-10-21 15:41

Details

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

KVM: x86/mmu: Bail from shadow walks if the root is invalid or a dummy

When walking shadow page tables, immediately terminate the walk if the root is a "dummy" root, i.e. a root whose top-level page table is backed by the zero page, but otherwise doesn't exist. If memslot creation races with a stage-2 page fault (EPT violation or #NPF) from L2, then if the stars align, KVM will attempt to walk shadow page tables using the zero page and hit a NULL pointer deref.

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000021 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP CPU: 30 UID: 1000 PID: 941 Comm: qemu Not tainted 7.2.0-rc2-1b731e5ded48-next-vm #1741 PREEMPTLAZY Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015 RIP: 0010:__kvm_mmu_invalidate_addr+0xea/0x210 [kvm] Call Trace: kvm_mmu_invalidate_addr+0x92/0xe0 [kvm] __kvm_inject_emulated_page_fault+0x67/0x80 [kvm] ept_page_fault+0x160/0x850 [kvm] kvm_mmu_do_page_fault+0x102/0x1f0 [kvm] kvm_mmu_page_fault+0x8e/0x6b0 [kvm] vmx_handle_exit+0x163/0x640 [kvm_intel] kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x960/0x2120 [kvm] kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x2c7/0x970 [kvm] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x90/0xd0 do_syscall_64+0x67/0x5f0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 RIP: 0033:0x7f606d0b53bb

Opportunistically harden the shadow walks against fully invalid roots, but WARN, as all callers are expected/required to pre-check for a valid root. Don't WARN in the dummy root case as the whole point of using a dummy root is to provide a root that's valid enough to enter the guest, i.e. it should Just Work for all flows except those that need to know about dummy roots.

Alternatively, KVM could allocate a dedicated page and associated shadow page structure for the dummy root, which is very tempting as it such an approach should be more resilient against unexpected behavior. But that would be a much larger and thus riskier change than simply terminating walks of dummy roots.

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{
  "affected": [],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2026-98717"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [],
    "github_reviewed": false,
    "github_reviewed_at": null,
    "nvd_published_at": "2026-10-18T16:17:25Z",
    "severity": null
  },
  "details": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nKVM: x86/mmu: Bail from shadow walks if the root is invalid or a dummy\n\nWhen walking shadow page tables, immediately terminate the walk if the root\nis a \"dummy\" root, i.e. a root whose top-level page table is backed by the\nzero page, but otherwise doesn\u0027t exist.  If memslot creation races with a\nstage-2 page fault (EPT violation or #NPF) from L2, then if the stars align,\nKVM will attempt to walk shadow page tables using the zero page and hit a\nNULL pointer deref.\n\n  BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000021\n  #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode\n  #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page\n  PGD 0 P4D 0\n  Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP\n  CPU: 30 UID: 1000 PID: 941 Comm: qemu Not tainted 7.2.0-rc2-1b731e5ded48-next-vm #1741 PREEMPTLAZY\n  Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015\n  RIP: 0010:__kvm_mmu_invalidate_addr+0xea/0x210 [kvm]\n  Call Trace:\n   \u003cTASK\u003e\n   kvm_mmu_invalidate_addr+0x92/0xe0 [kvm]\n   __kvm_inject_emulated_page_fault+0x67/0x80 [kvm]\n   ept_page_fault+0x160/0x850 [kvm]\n   kvm_mmu_do_page_fault+0x102/0x1f0 [kvm]\n   kvm_mmu_page_fault+0x8e/0x6b0 [kvm]\n   vmx_handle_exit+0x163/0x640 [kvm_intel]\n   kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x960/0x2120 [kvm]\n   kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x2c7/0x970 [kvm]\n   __x64_sys_ioctl+0x90/0xd0\n   do_syscall_64+0x67/0x5f0\n   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53\n  RIP: 0033:0x7f606d0b53bb\n\nOpportunistically harden the shadow walks against fully invalid roots, but\nWARN, as all callers are expected/required to pre-check for a valid root.\nDon\u0027t WARN in the dummy root case as the whole point of using a dummy root\nis to provide a root that\u0027s valid enough to enter the guest, i.e. it should\nJust Work for all flows except those that *need* to know about dummy roots.\n\nAlternatively, KVM could allocate a dedicated page and associated shadow\npage structure for the dummy root, which is very tempting as it such an\napproach should be more resilient against unexpected behavior.  But that\nwould be a much larger and thus riskier change than simply terminating\nwalks of dummy roots.",
  "id": "GHSA-hf2p-vjqm-2xw6",
  "modified": "2026-10-21T15:41:51Z",
  "published": "2026-10-18T18:32:00Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98717"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/681e31f03ec9219099a66a0f6e1bc48e1b5aa914"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/951fce1510645ba5df38da6fb85ece5726ec347d"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/97c1dcce17ef27853860c781f9912257e6adbf7c"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b6249c1d5665098c8bf12f8d3e4712bf04c775bc"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e1bcabc07efd029ab414894127411129ffdb8b48"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": []
}

CVE-2026-98717 (GCVE-0-2026-98717)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2026-10-18 15:46 – Updated: 2026-10-21 12:56

Title

KVM: x86/mmu: Bail from shadow walks if the root is invalid or a dummy

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: x86/mmu: Bail from shadow walks if the root is invalid or a dummy When walking shadow page tables, immediately terminate the walk if the root is a "dummy" root, i.e. a root whose top-level page table is backed by the zero page, but otherwise doesn't exist. If memslot creation races with a stage-2 page fault (EPT violation or #NPF) from L2, then if the stars align, KVM will attempt to walk shadow page tables using the zero page and hit a NULL pointer deref. BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000021 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP CPU: 30 UID: 1000 PID: 941 Comm: qemu Not tainted 7.2.0-rc2-1b731e5ded48-next-vm #1741 PREEMPTLAZY Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015 RIP: 0010:__kvm_mmu_invalidate_addr+0xea/0x210 [kvm] Call Trace: <TASK> kvm_mmu_invalidate_addr+0x92/0xe0 [kvm] __kvm_inject_emulated_page_fault+0x67/0x80 [kvm] ept_page_fault+0x160/0x850 [kvm] kvm_mmu_do_page_fault+0x102/0x1f0 [kvm] kvm_mmu_page_fault+0x8e/0x6b0 [kvm] vmx_handle_exit+0x163/0x640 [kvm_intel] kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x960/0x2120 [kvm] kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x2c7/0x970 [kvm] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x90/0xd0 do_syscall_64+0x67/0x5f0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 RIP: 0033:0x7f606d0b53bb Opportunistically harden the shadow walks against fully invalid roots, but WARN, as all callers are expected/required to pre-check for a valid root. Don't WARN in the dummy root case as the whole point of using a dummy root is to provide a root that's valid enough to enter the guest, i.e. it should Just Work for all flows except those that *need* to know about dummy roots. Alternatively, KVM could allocate a dedicated page and associated shadow page structure for the dummy root, which is very tempting as it such an approach should be more resilient against unexpected behavior. But that would be a much larger and thus riskier change than simply terminating walks of dummy roots.

Severity

No CVSS data available.

Assigner

Linux CNA under the mitre root

CNA scorecard D 53/100 over 7018 records in the last 180 days details

References

5 references

URL	Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/951fce1510645ba5d…
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e1bcabc07efd029ab…
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/97c1dcce17ef27853…
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/681e31f03ec921909…
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b6249c1d5665098c8…

Impacted products

2 products

Vendor	Product	Version
Linux	Linux	Affected: 0e3223d8d00ac05849661f1b8b476d3caca251cf , < 951fce1510645ba5df38da6fb85ece5726ec347d (git) Affected: 0e3223d8d00ac05849661f1b8b476d3caca251cf , < e1bcabc07efd029ab414894127411129ffdb8b48 (git) Affected: 0e3223d8d00ac05849661f1b8b476d3caca251cf , < 97c1dcce17ef27853860c781f9912257e6adbf7c (git) Affected: 0e3223d8d00ac05849661f1b8b476d3caca251cf , < 681e31f03ec9219099a66a0f6e1bc48e1b5aa914 (git) Affected: 0e3223d8d00ac05849661f1b8b476d3caca251cf , < b6249c1d5665098c8bf12f8d3e4712bf04c775bc (git)
Linux	Linux	Affected: 6.6 Unaffected: 0 , < 6.6 (semver) Unaffected: 6.6.160 , ≤ 6.6.* (semver) Unaffected: 6.12.113 , ≤ 6.12.* (semver) Unaffected: 6.18.56 , ≤ 6.18.* (semver) Unaffected: 7.2.10 , ≤ 7.2.* (semver) Unaffected: 7.3 , ≤ * (original_commit_for_fix)

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JSON

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{
  "containers": {
    "cna": {
      "affected": [
        {
          "defaultStatus": "unaffected",
          "product": "Linux",
          "programFiles": [
            "arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c"
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          "versions": [
            {
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              "status": "affected",
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              "versionType": "git"
            },
            {
              "lessThan": "e1bcabc07efd029ab414894127411129ffdb8b48",
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            },
            {
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              "status": "affected",
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              "versionType": "git"
            },
            {
              "lessThan": "681e31f03ec9219099a66a0f6e1bc48e1b5aa914",
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              "versionType": "git"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "defaultStatus": "affected",
          "product": "Linux",
          "programFiles": [
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          ],
          "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
          "vendor": "Linux",
          "versions": [
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "6.6"
            },
            {
              "lessThan": "6.6",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "0",
              "versionType": "semver"
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              "versionType": "semver"
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              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "6.12.113",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "6.18.*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "6.18.56",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "7.2.*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "7.2.10",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "7.3",
              "versionType": "original_commit_for_fix"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "cpeApplicability": [
        {
          "nodes": [
            {
              "cpeMatch": [
                {
                  "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
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                  "vulnerable": true
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                  "vulnerable": true
                },
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                },
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                }
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              "negate": false,
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          "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nKVM: x86/mmu: Bail from shadow walks if the root is invalid or a dummy\n\nWhen walking shadow page tables, immediately terminate the walk if the root\nis a \"dummy\" root, i.e. a root whose top-level page table is backed by the\nzero page, but otherwise doesn\u0027t exist.  If memslot creation races with a\nstage-2 page fault (EPT violation or #NPF) from L2, then if the stars align,\nKVM will attempt to walk shadow page tables using the zero page and hit a\nNULL pointer deref.\n\n  BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000021\n  #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode\n  #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page\n  PGD 0 P4D 0\n  Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP\n  CPU: 30 UID: 1000 PID: 941 Comm: qemu Not tainted 7.2.0-rc2-1b731e5ded48-next-vm #1741 PREEMPTLAZY\n  Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015\n  RIP: 0010:__kvm_mmu_invalidate_addr+0xea/0x210 [kvm]\n  Call Trace:\n   \u003cTASK\u003e\n   kvm_mmu_invalidate_addr+0x92/0xe0 [kvm]\n   __kvm_inject_emulated_page_fault+0x67/0x80 [kvm]\n   ept_page_fault+0x160/0x850 [kvm]\n   kvm_mmu_do_page_fault+0x102/0x1f0 [kvm]\n   kvm_mmu_page_fault+0x8e/0x6b0 [kvm]\n   vmx_handle_exit+0x163/0x640 [kvm_intel]\n   kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x960/0x2120 [kvm]\n   kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x2c7/0x970 [kvm]\n   __x64_sys_ioctl+0x90/0xd0\n   do_syscall_64+0x67/0x5f0\n   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53\n  RIP: 0033:0x7f606d0b53bb\n\nOpportunistically harden the shadow walks against fully invalid roots, but\nWARN, as all callers are expected/required to pre-check for a valid root.\nDon\u0027t WARN in the dummy root case as the whole point of using a dummy root\nis to provide a root that\u0027s valid enough to enter the guest, i.e. it should\nJust Work for all flows except those that *need* to know about dummy roots.\n\nAlternatively, KVM could allocate a dedicated page and associated shadow\npage structure for the dummy root, which is very tempting as it such an\napproach should be more resilient against unexpected behavior.  But that\nwould be a much larger and thus riskier change than simply terminating\nwalks of dummy roots."
        }
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      "providerMetadata": {
        "dateUpdated": "2026-10-21T12:56:02.536Z",
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          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b6249c1d5665098c8bf12f8d3e4712bf04c775bc"
        }
      ],
      "title": "KVM: x86/mmu: Bail from shadow walks if the root is invalid or a dummy",
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    "assignerShortName": "Linux",
    "cveId": "CVE-2026-98717",
    "datePublished": "2026-10-18T15:46:51.862Z",
    "dateReserved": "2026-09-25T10:25:14.366Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2026-10-21T12:56:02.536Z",
    "state": "PUBLISHED"
  },
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}

Sightings

Author	Source	Type	Date	Other

Nomenclature

Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.

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