Skip to main content

Linux Kernel (KVM) EUVDEUVD-2026-45473

| CVE-2026-63807 HIGH
Out-of-bounds Read (CWE-125)
2026-07-19 Linux GHSA-xxf6-pvjr-qhj4
8.8
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: Linux
Share

Severity by source

Vendor (Linux) PRIMARY
8.8 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI
5.6 MEDIUM

Local guest operator (AV:L/PR:L); requires contrived guest mapping layout plus a memslot-update event (AC:H); demonstrated impact is host crash only (A:H, C:N/I:N), with guest crashing host (S:C).

3.1 AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
4.0 AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:H
SUSE
7.3 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:N/A:H
Red Hat
7.0 MEDIUM
qualitative

Primary rating from Vendor (Linux).

CVSS VectorVendor: Linux

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

5
Analysis Generated
Jul 20, 2026 - 15:36 vuln.today
CVSS changed
Jul 20, 2026 - 15:22 NVD
8.8 (HIGH)
Patch available
Jul 19, 2026 - 14:17 EUVD
CVE Published
Jul 19, 2026 - 12:02 cve.org
HIGH 8.8
CVE Published
Jul 19, 2026 - 12:02 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionCVE.org

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

KVM: x86/mmu: Ensure hugepage is in by slot before checking max mapping level

When recovering hugepages in the shadow MMU, verify that the base gfn of the shadow page is actually contained within the target memslot, *before* querying the max mapping level given the shadow page's gfn. Failure to pre-check the validity of the gfn can lead to an out-of-bounds access to the slot's lpage_info (which typically manifests as a host #PF because the lpage_info is vmalloc'd) if the guest creates a hugepage mapping (in its PTEs) that extends "below" the bounds of a memslot.

When faulting in memory for a guest, and the size of the guest mapping is greater than KVM's (current) max mapping, then KVM will create a "direct" shadow page (direct in that there are no gPTEs to shadow, and so the target gfn is a direct calculation given the base gfn of the shadow page). The hugepage recovery flow looks for such direct shadow pages, as forcing 4KiB mappings when dirty logging generates the guest > host mapping size case. When the 4KiB restriction is lifted, then KVM can replace the shadow page with a hugepage.

But if KVM originally used a smaller mapping than the guest because the range of memory covered by the guest hugepage exceeds the bounds of a memslot, then KVM will link a direct shadow page with a gfn that is outside the bounds of the memslot being used to fault in memory. The rmap entry added for the leaf mapping is correct and within bounds, but the gfn of the leaf SPTE's parent shadow page will be out of bounds.

BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffc90000806ffc #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 100000067 P4D 100000067 PUD 1002a7067 PMD 10612f067 PTE 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP CPU: 13 UID: 1000 PID: 757 Comm: mmu_stress_test Not tainted 7.1.0-rc1-48ce1e26eace-x86_pir_to_irr_comments-vm #341 PREEMPT Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015 RIP: 0010:kvm_mmu_max_mapping_level+0x79/0x2b0 [kvm] Call Trace: <TASK> kvm_mmu_recover_huge_pages+0x21b/0x320 [kvm] kvm_set_memslot+0x1ee/0x590 [kvm] kvm_set_memory_region.part.0+0x3a1/0x4d0 [kvm] kvm_vm_ioctl+0x9bf/0x15d0 [kvm] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x8a/0xd0 do_syscall_64+0xb7/0xbb0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 RIP: 0033:0x7f21c0f1a9bf </TASK>

Don't bother pre-checking the bounds of the potential hugepage, i.e. don't check that e.g. sp->gfn + KVM_PAGES_PER_HPAGE(sp->role.level + 1) is also within the memslot, as the checks performed by kvm_mmu_max_mapping_level() are a superset of the basic bounds checks. I.e. pre-checking the full range would be a dubious micro-optimization.

AnalysisAI

Out-of-bounds read in the Linux kernel's KVM x86 shadow MMU allows a malicious or misbehaving guest to trigger a host kernel page fault (crash) during hugepage recovery. The flaw occurs when the KVM host recovers hugepages and queries the max mapping level for a direct shadow page whose base gfn falls outside the target memslot, causing an out-of-bounds access into the vmalloc'd lpage_info array. Rated CVSS 8.8 (local, scope-changed) but with low real-world exploitation probability (EPSS 0.17%); no public exploit and no CISA KEV listing - no public exploit identified at time of analysis.

Technical ContextAI

The vulnerability lives in KVM's x86 Memory Management Unit (arch/x86/kvm/mmu), specifically the shadow-MMU hugepage recovery path (kvm_mmu_recover_huge_pages → kvm_mmu_max_mapping_level). When a guest maps memory with a page size larger than KVM's current max mapping (for example, because dirty logging forces 4KiB mappings, or because a guest hugepage range extends past a memslot boundary), KVM creates a 'direct' shadow page whose target gfn is computed directly from the shadow page's base gfn. If that base gfn lies below the bounds of the memslot being faulted in, the recovery flow indexes the slot's per-level lpage_info metadata with an out-of-bounds gfn. Because lpage_info is vmalloc-allocated, the bad index typically lands on an unmapped page and manifests as a supervisor not-present page fault in kernel mode (see the RIP at kvm_mmu_max_mapping_level in the report). The root cause is a missing bounds/containment check of the gfn before the metadata lookup - an out-of-bounds read (CWE-125 class), despite the intelligence tag loosely labeling it 'Buffer Overflow'; the upstream CWE field is N/A. The fix reorders the logic to verify the shadow page's base gfn is contained within the target memslot before querying the max mapping level.

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patch: upgrade to a fixed stable kernel for your branch - 5.15.211, 6.1.177, 6.6.144, 6.12.95, 6.18.38, or 7.1.3 (fix also in mainline 7.2-rc1). Apply the corresponding stable commit from https://git.kernel.org/stable/ (for example 6.12.x users take 6.12.95) via your distribution's kernel update, then reboot to load the patched kernel; live-patch equivalents may be offered by some distros. If immediate patching is not possible, compensating controls are limited because the code path is core KVM logic: restrict which principals can create/configure KVM guests (the local unprivileged user in the trace still needed VM access), avoid running untrusted or attacker-controlled guests on unpatched hosts, and - where operationally acceptable - keep dirty-logging/live-migration operations (which change memslots and drive the hugepage recovery path) minimized on unpatched hosts, accepting the trade-off of degraded migration/logging capability. These are host-availability mitigations only and do not fully close the window; patching is the real fix. Advisory: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-63807.

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Important
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 16.0 Affected

Share

EUVD-2026-45473 vulnerability details – vuln.today

This site uses cookies essential for authentication and security. No tracking or analytics cookies are used. Privacy Policy