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High · 7.3 CVE-2024-26992 EUVD-2024-24254GHSA-wm2r-7vm2-cpg9

KVM: x86/pmu: Disable support for adaptive PEBS

Published May 1, 2024 · Updated Aug 5, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

Vendor: Linux Product: Linux Package: linux Package: linux Package: linux-allwinner-5.19 Package: linux-aws Package: linux-aws-5.0 Package: linux-aws-5.11 Package: linux-aws-5.13 Package: linux-aws-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.3 Package: linux-aws-5.8 Package: linux-aws-6.2 Package: linux-aws-6.5 Package: linux-aws-6.8 Package: linux-azure Package: linux-azure-5.11 Package: linux-azure-5.13 Package: linux-azure-5.19 Package: linux-azure-5.3 Package: linux-azure-5.8 Package: linux-azure-6.2 Package: linux-azure-6.5 Package: linux-azure-6.8 Package: linux-azure-edge Package: linux-azure-fde Package: linux-azure-fde-5.19 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.2 Package: linux-gcp Package: linux-gcp-5.11 Package: linux-gcp-5.13 Package: linux-gcp-5.19 Package: linux-gcp-5.3 Package: linux-gcp-5.8 Package: linux-gcp-6.2 Package: linux-gcp-6.5 Package: linux-gke Package: linux-gke-4.15 Package: linux-gke-5.15 Package: linux-gke-5.4 Package: linux-gkeop-5.4 Package: linux-hwe Package: linux-hwe-5.11 Package: linux-hwe-5.13 Package: linux-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-hwe-5.8 Package: linux-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-hwe-edge Package: linux-ibm Package: linux-intel Package: linux-intel-5.13 Package: linux-intel-iot-realtime Package: linux-lowlatency Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-nvidia Package: linux-nvidia-6.2 Package: linux-nvidia-6.5 Package: linux-nvidia-6.8 Package: linux-oem Package: linux-oem-5.10 Package: linux-oem-5.13 Package: linux-oem-5.14 Package: linux-oem-5.17 Package: linux-oem-5.6 Package: linux-oem-6.0 Package: linux-oem-6.1 Package: linux-oem-6.5 Package: linux-oem-6.8 Package: linux-oracle Package: linux-oracle-5.0 Package: linux-oracle-5.11 Package: linux-oracle-5.13 Package: linux-oracle-5.3 Package: linux-oracle-5.8 Package: linux-oracle-6.5 Package: linux-oracle-6.8 Package: linux-raspi Package: linux-raspi-realtime Package: linux-raspi2 Package: linux-realtime Package: linux-riscv Package: linux-riscv-5.11 Package: linux-riscv-5.19 Package: linux-riscv-5.8 Package: linux-riscv-6.5 Package: linux-starfive-5.19 Package: linux-starfive-6.2 Package: linux-starfive-6.5 Platform: Linux Ecosystem: Debian Ecosystem: Ubuntu

Description

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

KVM: x86/pmu: Disable support for adaptive PEBS

Drop support for virtualizing adaptive PEBS, as KVM's implementation is
architecturally broken without an obvious/easy path forward, and because
exposing adaptive PEBS can leak host LBRs to the guest, i.e. can leak
host kernel addresses to the guest.

Bug #1 is that KVM doesn't account for the upper 32 bits of
IA32_FIXED_CTR_CTRL when (re)programming fixed counters, e.g
fixed_ctrl_field() drops the upper bits, reprogram_fixed_counters()
stores local variables as u8s and truncates the upper bits too, etc.

Bug #2 is that, because KVM _always_ sets precise_ip to a non-zero value
for PEBS events, perf will _always_ generate an adaptive record, even if
the guest requested a basic record. Note, KVM will also enable adaptive
PEBS in individual *counter*, even if adaptive PEBS isn't exposed to the
guest, but this is benign as MSR_PEBS_DATA_CFG is guaranteed to be zero,
i.e. the guest will only ever see Basic records.

Bug #3 is in perf. intel_pmu_disable_fixed() doesn't clear the upper
bits either, i.e. leaves ICL_FIXED_0_ADAPTIVE set, and
intel_pmu_enable_fixed() effectively doesn't clear ICL_FIXED_0_ADAPTIVE
either. I.e. perf _always_ enables ADAPTIVE counters, regardless of what
KVM requests.

Bug #4 is that adaptive PEBS *might* effectively bypass event filters set
by the host, as "Updated Memory Access Info Group" records information
that might be disallowed by userspace via KVM_SET_PMU_EVENT_FILTER.

Bug #5 is that KVM doesn't ensure LBR MSRs hold guest values (or at least
zeros) when entering a vCPU with adaptive PEBS, which allows the guest
to read host LBRs, i.e. host RIPs/addresses, by enabling "LBR Entries"
records.

Disable adaptive PEBS support as an immediate fix due to the severity of
the LBR leak in particular, and because fixing all of the bugs will be
non-trivial, e.g. not suitable for backporting to stable kernels.

Note! This will break live migration, but trying to make KVM play nice
with live migration would be quite complicated, wouldn't be guaranteed to
work (i.e. KVM might still kill/confuse the guest), and it's not clear
that there are any publicly available VMMs that support adaptive PEBS,
let alone live migrate VMs that support adaptive PEBS, e.g. QEMU doesn't
support PEBS in any capacity.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Linux Linux 6.0 6.1.88

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.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 linux 6.8.9-1 —
Debian 13 linux 6.8.9-1 —
Debian 12 linux 6.1.90-1 DSA-5680-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux 6.8.0-38.38 USN-6893-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-aws 6.8.0-1011.12 USN-6893-3
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure 6.8.0-1010.10 USN-6893-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gcp 6.8.0-1010.11 USN-6893-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gke 6.8.0-1006.9 USN-6893-2
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-ibm +2 6.8.0-1008.8 USN-6918-1, USN-6893-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-intel 6.8.0-1007.14 USN-6893-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia 6.8.0-1009.9 USN-6893-2
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-raspi 6.8.0-1007.7 USN-6893-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-riscv +1 6.8.0-38.38.1 USN-6893-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-aws-6.8 6.8.0-1011.12~22.04.1 —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-azure-6.8 6.8.0-1010.10~22.04.1 —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-nvidia-6.8 6.8.0-1009.9~22.04.1 —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-oracle-6.8 6.8.0-1008.8~22.04.1 —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-riscv +32 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-gke +26 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-gcp +13 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS linux-hwe-edge No fix yet —
Show 1 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-raspi-realtime 6.8.0-2006.6 —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-realtime 6.8.1-1004.4 —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
RHEL 9 bpftool 7.4.0-503.11.1.el9_5 RHSA-2024:9315
RHEL 9 rv +67 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5 RHSA-2024:9315
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES 15 SP6 kernel-64kb +3 6.4.0-150600.23.7.3 SUSE-SU-2024:2203-1
SLES 15 SP6 kernel-azure +1 6.4.0-150600.8.5.4 SUSE-SU-2024:2135-1
SLES 15 SP6 kernel-default-base 6.4.0-150600.23.7.3.150600.12.2.7 SUSE-SU-2024:2203-1
SLES 15 SP6 kernel-docs 6.4.0-150600.23.7.4 SUSE-SU-2024:2203-1
SLES 15 SP6 kernel-source 6.4.0-150600.23.7.2 SUSE-SU-2024:2203-1
SLES 15 SP6 kernel-syms 6.4.0-150600.23.7.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2203-1
SLES 15 SP6 kernel-syms-azure 6.4.0-150600.8.5.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2135-1
Show 3 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLE Micro 6.0 kernel-default-base 6.4.0-17.1.1.51 SUSE-SU-2025:20008-1
SLE Micro 6.0 kernel-rt +1 6.4.0-9.1 SUSE-SU-2025:20028-1
SLE Micro 6.0 kernel-source +2 6.4.0-18.1 SUSE-SU-2025:20008-1
SLE Live Patching 15 SP6 kernel-default 6.4.0-150600.23.7.3 SUSE-SU-2024:2203-1
SLE Live Patching 15 SP6 kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP6-RT_Update_1 1-150600.1.5.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2973-1
SLE Live Patching 15 SP6 kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP6_Update_1 1-150600.13.3.7 SUSE-SU-2024:2203-1
SUSE Real Time Module 15 SP6 kernel-rt +3 6.4.0-150600.10.5.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2973-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Leap 15.6 dtb-aarch64 +2 6.4.0-150600.23.7.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2203-1
openSUSE Leap 15.6 kernel-64kb +5 6.4.0-150600.23.7.3 SUSE-SU-2024:2203-1
openSUSE Leap 15.6 kernel-azure +1 6.4.0-150600.8.5.4 SUSE-SU-2024:2135-1
openSUSE Leap 15.6 kernel-default-base 6.4.0-150600.23.7.3.150600.12.2.7 SUSE-SU-2024:2203-1
openSUSE Leap 15.6 kernel-docs 6.4.0-150600.23.7.4 SUSE-SU-2024:2203-1
openSUSE Leap 15.6 kernel-rt +3 6.4.0-150600.10.5.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2973-1
openSUSE Leap 15.6 kernel-source 6.4.0-150600.23.7.2 SUSE-SU-2024:2203-1
openSUSE Leap 15.6 kernel-syms-azure 6.4.0-150600.8.5.1 SUSE-SU-2024:2135-1

Amazon Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Amazon Linux 2023 kernel-livepatch-6.1.90-99.173 1.0-0.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2024-695
Amazon Linux 2023 perf +14 6.1.90-99.173.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2024-695

Oracle Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Oracle Linux 9 bpftool 7.4.0-503.11.1.el9_5 ELSA-2024-9315
Oracle Linux 9 rv +28 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5 ELSA-2024-9315

Advisories 14

References