CVE-2026-23425

KVM: arm64: Fix ID register initialization for non-protected pKVM guests

State
Published
Severity
8.8 High
Published
Apr 3, 2026
Updated
Aug 5, 2026
Reserved
Jan 13, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

Description

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

KVM: arm64: Fix ID register initialization for non-protected pKVM guests

In protected mode, the hypervisor maintains a separate instance of the `kvm` structure for each VM. For non-protected VMs, this structure is initialized from the host's `kvm` state.

Currently, `pkvm_init_features_from_host()` copies the `KVM_ARCH_FLAG_ID_REGS_INITIALIZED` flag from the host without the underlying `id_regs` data being initialized. This results in the hypervisor seeing the flag as set while the ID registers remain zeroed.

Consequently, `kvm_has_feat()` checks at EL2 fail (return 0) for non-protected VMs. This breaks logic that relies on feature detection, such as `ctxt_has_tcrx()` for TCR2_EL1 support. As a result, certain system registers (e.g., TCR2_EL1, PIR_EL1, POR_EL1) are not saved/restored during the world switch, which could lead to state corruption.

Fix this by explicitly copying the ID registers from the host `kvm` to the hypervisor `kvm` for non-protected VMs during initialization, since we trust the host with its non-protected guests' features. Also ensure `KVM_ARCH_FLAG_ID_REGS_INITIALIZED` is cleared initially in `pkvm_init_features_from_host` so that `vm_copy_id_regs` can properly initialize them and set the flag once done.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.18.8 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:HLinux

Weaknesses

The record names no weakness.

Affected Products

ProductVersions
LinuxLinux
  • 41d6028e28bd474298ff10409c292ec46cf43a90 to before bce3847f7c51b86332bf2e554c9e80ca3820f16cAffected
  • 41d6028e28bd474298ff10409c292ec46cf43a90 to before 858620655c1fbff05997e162fc7d83a3293d5142Affected
  • 41d6028e28bd474298ff10409c292ec46cf43a90 to before 7e7c2cf0024d89443a7af52e09e47b1fe634ab17Affected
LinuxLinux
  • 6.14Affected
  • before 6.14Not affected
  • 6.18.17 through 6.18.*Not affected
  • 6.19.7 through 6.19.*Not affected
  • 7.0 and laterNot affected

References

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