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Linux Kernel KVM/TDX EUVDEUVD-2026-59184

| CVE-2026-72285 HIGH
2026-08-15 Linux GHSA-725c-hm4j-27fv
7.8
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: Linux
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Severity by source

Vendor (Linux) PRIMARY
7.8 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI
7.0 HIGH

TOCTOU race requires concurrent thread timing, justifying AC:H over the vendor's AC:L; all other metrics unchanged.

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

Primary rating from Vendor (Linux).

CVSS VectorVendor: Linux

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

Lifecycle Timeline

4
Analysis Generated
Aug 17, 2026 - 08:08 vuln.today
CVSS changed
Aug 17, 2026 - 06:22 NVD
7.8 (HIGH)
CVE Published
Aug 15, 2026 - 05:55 cve.org
HIGH 7.8
CVE Published
Aug 15, 2026 - 05:55 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionCVE.org

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

KVM: TDX: Reject concurrent change to CPUID entry count

Reject KVM_TDX_INIT_VM if userspace changes cpuid.nent between the initial read and the subsequent copy of the initialization data.

tdx_td_init() first reads user_data->cpuid.nent to size the flexible kvm_tdx_init_vm copy. The copied structure also contains cpuid.nent, and that field can differ from the value used to size the allocation if userspace modifies the input concurrently. setup_tdparams_cpuids() later passes init_vm->cpuid.nent to kvm_find_cpuid_entry2(), which uses it as the array bound for the copied entries.

Require the copied count to match the value used to size the allocation so that CPUID parsing cannot access beyond the entries actually copied.

AnalysisAI

Out-of-bounds kernel memory access in Linux KVM's Intel TDX subsystem allows a local, low-privileged user to exploit a TOCTOU race condition during TD virtual machine initialization, potentially achieving kernel memory disclosure, corruption, or denial of service. The vulnerable path exists in tdx_td_init(), where the cpuid.nent field is read once to size a flexible allocation and then again from the copied structure - allowing userspace to change the count between those two references. No active exploitation has been confirmed and EPSS probability is very low (0.20%, 10th percentile), limiting immediate real-world risk to TDX-enabled production environments.

Technical ContextAI

The vulnerability resides in the KVM subsystem's Intel Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) implementation (cpe:2.3:a:linux:linux_kernel). TDX is Intel's hardware-enforced VM isolation technology, available on 4th-generation Xeon Scalable and newer platforms. When userspace calls the KVM_TDX_INIT_VM ioctl, tdx_td_init() first reads user_data->cpuid.nent to compute the size of a flexible kvm_tdx_init_vm structure for kernel-side allocation. The entire user structure is then copied into that allocation. Because the copy includes the cpuid.nent field, and userspace can modify that field concurrently (from a separate thread) between the sizing read and the copy, the value in the copied structure may be larger than the allocation was sized for. setup_tdparams_cpuids() subsequently passes init_vm->cpuid.nent as the array bound to kvm_find_cpuid_entry2(), enabling it to iterate beyond the entries actually copied. The root cause is a classic Time-of-Check Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) race on a user-controlled length field - semantically similar to CWE-367, though CWE is listed as N/A in the advisory. The fix requires that the copied cpuid.nent value match the value used for sizing, rejecting KVM_TDX_INIT_VM if they differ.

RemediationAI

Update to Linux kernel 7.1.5 or 7.2-rc4 (or later), which include the fix commits cfbebb55e5127dc162e73fa8956000055a78606c and d6b5aba65e99531c97b146622a406c75653819d5 from the stable trees at https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/. Distributions shipping patched kernels for the 6.x stable series should be consulted individually for backport availability. As a compensating control where patching is not immediately possible, restricting unprivileged local user access to the KVM/TDX ioctl interface (e.g., tightening permissions on /dev/kvm or removing untrusted users from the 'kvm' group) limits exploitation to privileged processes - note this may break legitimate VM management workflows. Disabling TDX at the BIOS/firmware level eliminates the attack surface entirely for non-TDX workloads, at the cost of losing hardware VM isolation for tenant VMs. NVD advisory reference: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-72285.

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Moderate
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 16.0 Not-Affected

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EUVD-2026-59184 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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