CVE-2026-23401 KVM: x86/mmu: Drop/zap existing present SPTE even when creating an MMIO SPTE

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: x86/mmu: Drop/zap existing present SPTE even when creating an MMIO SPTE When installing an emulated MMIO SPTE, do so *after* dropping/zapping the existing SPTE (if it's shadow-present). While commit a54aa15c6bda3 was right about it being impossible to convert a shadow-present SPTE to an MMIO SPTE due to a _guest_ write, it failed to account for writes to guest memory that are outside the scope of KVM. E.g. if host userspace modifies a shadowed gPTE to switch from a memslot to emulted MMIO and then the guest hits a relevant page fault, KVM will install the MMIO SPTE without first zapping the shadow-present SPTE. ------------[ cut here ]------------ is_shadow_present_pte(*sptep) WARNING: arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c:484 at mark_mmio_spte+0xb2/0xc0 [kvm], CPU#0: vmx_ept_stale_r/4292 Modules linked in: kvm_intel kvm irqbypass CPU: 0 UID: 1000 PID: 4292 Comm: vmx_ept_stale_r Not tainted 7.0.0-rc2-eafebd2d2ab0-sink-vm #319 PREEMPT Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015 RIP: 0010:mark_mmio_spte+0xb2/0xc0 [kvm] Call Trace: <TASK> mmu_set_spte+0x237/0x440 [kvm] ept_page_fault+0x535/0x7f0 [kvm] kvm_mmu_do_page_fault+0xee/0x1f0 [kvm] kvm_mmu_page_fault+0x8d/0x620 [kvm] vmx_handle_exit+0x18c/0x5a0 [kvm_intel] kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0xc55/0x1c20 [kvm] kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x2d5/0x980 [kvm] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x8a/0xd0 do_syscall_64+0xb5/0x730 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 RIP: 0033:0x47fa3f </TASK> ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

Exploitable with local access to the machine, without an account and without any user action; an attacker can seriously compromise confidentiality, integrity or availability.

Attack vector

Local

Attack complexity

High

Privileges required

None

Interaction

None

Scope

Changed

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

Affected products and versions