Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
kvm: avoid speculation-based attacks from out-of-range memslot accesses
KVM's mechanism for accessing guest memory translates a guest physical
address (gpa) to a host virtual address using the right-shifted gpa
(also known as gfn) and a struct kvm_memory_slot. The translation is
performed in __gfn_to_hva_memslot using the following formula:
hva = slot->userspace_addr + (gfn - slot->base_gfn) * PAGE_SIZE
It is expected that gfn falls within the boundaries of the guest's
physical memory. However, a guest can access invalid physical addresses
in such a way that the gfn is invalid.
__gfn_to_hva_memslot is called from kvm_vcpu_gfn_to_hva_prot, which first
retrieves a memslot through __gfn_to_memslot. While __gfn_to_memslot
does check that the gfn falls within the boundaries of the guest's
physical memory or not, a CPU can speculate the result of the check and
continue execution speculatively using an illegal gfn. The speculation
can result in calculating an out-of-bounds hva. If the resulting host
virtual address is used to load another guest physical address, this
is effectively a Spectre gadget consisting of two consecutive reads,
the second of which is data dependent on the first.
Right now it's not clear if there are any cases in which this is
exploitable. One interesting case was reported by the original author
of this patch, and involves visiting guest page tables on x86. Right
now these are not vulnerable because the hva read goes through get_user(),
which contains an LFENCE speculation barrier. However, there are
patches in progress for x86 uaccess.h to mask kernel addresses instead of
using LFENCE; once these land, a guest could use speculation to read
from the VMM's ring 3 address space. Other architectures such as ARM
already use the address masking method, and would be susceptible to
this same kind of data-dependent access gadgets. Therefore, this patch
proactively protects from these attacks by masking out-of-bounds gfns
in __gfn_to_hva_memslot, which blocks speculation of invalid hvas.
Sean Christopherson noted that this patch does not cover
kvm_read_guest_offset_cached. This however is limited to a few bytes
past the end of the cache, and therefore it is unlikely to be useful in
the context of building a chain of data dependent accesses.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 2.6.25 | 4.4.273 |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | linux | 5.10.46-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | linux | 5.10.46-1 | — |
| Debian 12 | linux | 5.10.46-1 | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | linux-raspi-realtime | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | linux-riscv +22 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | linux | 5.4.0-81.91 | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | linux-aws | 5.4.0-1055.58 | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | linux-azure | 5.4.0-1056.58 | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | linux-bluefield | 5.4.0-1019.22 | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | linux-gcp | 5.4.0-1051.55 | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | linux-gke +26 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | linux-gkeop | 5.4.0-1022.23 | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | linux-kvm | 5.4.0-1045.47 | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | linux-oracle | 5.4.0-1053.57 | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | linux-raspi | 5.4.0-1042.46 | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux | 4.15.0-156.163 | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-aws | 4.15.0-1111.118 | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-aws-5.4 | 5.4.0-1055.58~18.04.1 | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-azure-4.15 | 4.15.0-1123.136 | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-azure-5.4 | 5.4.0-1056.58~18.04.1 | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-gcp +14 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-gcp-4.15 | 4.15.0-1108.122 | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-gcp-5.4 | 5.4.0-1051.55~18.04.1 | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-hwe-5.4 | 5.4.0-81.91~18.04.1 | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-kvm | 4.15.0-1099.101 | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-oracle | 4.15.0-1080.88 | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-oracle-5.4 | 5.4.0-1053.57~18.04.1 | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-raspi-5.4 | 5.4.0-1042.46~18.04.3 | — |
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | linux-hwe-edge | No fix yet | — |
Show 8 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS 20.04 LTS | linux-fips +3 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS 18.04 LTS | linux-fips +3 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS 16.04 LTS | linux-fips | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 20.04 LTS | linux-aws-fips | 5.4.0-1069.73+fips2 | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 20.04 LTS | linux-azure-fips | 5.4.0-1073.76+fips1 | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 20.04 LTS | linux-fips | 5.4.0-1032.37 | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 20.04 LTS | linux-gcp-fips | 5.4.0-1067.71~20.04.1 | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 18.04 LTS | linux-aws-fips | 4.15.0-2053.55 | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 18.04 LTS | linux-azure-fips | 4.15.0-2035.39 | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 18.04 LTS | linux-fips | 4.15.0-1069.78 | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 18.04 LTS | linux-gcp-fips | 4.15.0-2018.20 | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 16.04 LTS | linux-fips | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | linux +2 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | linux-aws-hwe | 4.15.0-1111.118~16.04.1 | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | linux-azure | 4.15.0-1123.136~16.04.1 | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | linux-gcp | 4.15.0-1108.122~16.04.1 | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | linux-hwe | 4.15.0-156.163~16.04.1 | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | linux-oracle | 4.15.0-1080.88~16.04.1 | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS | linux +2 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS | linux-azure | 4.15.0-1123.136~14.04.1 | — |
SUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| SLES 12 SP5 | kernel-azure +2 | 4.12.14-16.188.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:1979-1 |
| SLES 12 SP5 | kernel-docs +4 | 4.12.14-122.219.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2184-1 |
Show 3 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| SLES for SAP 12 SP5 | kernel-azure +2 | 4.12.14-16.188.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:1979-1 |
| SLES for SAP 12 SP5 | kernel-syms +2 | 4.12.14-122.219.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2184-1 |
| SLE Real Time 12 SP5 | kernel-rt +3 | 4.12.14-10.188.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:1983-1 |
| SLE Live Patching 12 SP5 | kernel-default | 4.12.14-122.219.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2184-1 |
| SLE Live Patching 12 SP5 | kgraft-patch-SLE12-SP5_Update_57 | 1-8.3.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2184-1 |
Amazon Linux
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Linux 2 | kernel-livepatch-4.14.238-182.421 | 1.0-0.amzn2 | ALAS2-2021-1685 |
| Amazon Linux 2 | perf +8 | 4.14.238-182.421.amzn2 | ALAS2-2021-1685 |
Advisories 4
- SUSE-SU-2024:1979-1 Security update for the Linux Kernel SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2024:1983-1 Security update for the Linux Kernel SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2024:2184-1 Security update for the Linux Kernel SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
- ALAS2-2021-1685 Important: kernel security update (Amazon Linux 2) Amazon Linux Security Center (ALAS) · Oct 2, 2025
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3098b86390a6b9ea52657689f08410baf130ceff
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/740621309b25bbf619b8a0ba5fd50a8e58989441
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/361ce3b917aff93123e9e966d8608655c967f438
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/22b87fb17a28d37331bb9c1110737627b17f6781
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bff1fbf0cf0712686f1df59a83fba6e31d2746a0
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7af299b97734c7e7f465b42a2139ce4d77246975
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ed0e2a893092c7fcb4ff7ba74e5efce53a6f5940
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/da27a83fd6cc7780fea190e1f5c19e87019da65c