CVE-2026-23401

CVE Details

Release Date:	2026-04-01
Impact:	Important	What is this?

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: x86/mmu: Drop/zap existing present SPTE even when creating an MMIO SPTE When installing an emulated MMIO SPTE, do so *after* dropping/zapping the existing SPTE (if its shadow-present). While commit a54aa15c6bda3 was right about it being impossible to convert a shadow-present SPTE to an MMIO SPTE due to a _guest_ write, it failed to account for writes to guest memory that are outside the scope of KVM. E.g. if host userspace modifies a shadowed gPTE to switch from a memslot to emulted MMIO and then the guest hits a relevant page fault, KVM will install the MMIO SPTE without first zapping the shadow-present SPTE. ------------[ cut here ]------------ is_shadow_present_pte(*sptep) WARNING: arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c:484 at mark_mmio_spte+0xb2/0xc0 [kvm], CPU#0: vmx_ept_stale_r/4292 Modules linked in: kvm_intel kvm irqbypass CPU: 0 UID: 1000 PID: 4292 Comm: vmx_ept_stale_r Not tainted 7.0.0-rc2-eafebd2d2ab0-sink-vm #319 PREEMPT Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015 RIP: 0010:mark_mmio_spte+0xb2/0xc0 [kvm] Call Trace: mmu_set_spte+0x237/0x440 [kvm] ept_page_fault+0x535/0x7f0 [kvm] kvm_mmu_do_page_fault+0xee/0x1f0 [kvm] kvm_mmu_page_fault+0x8d/0x620 [kvm] vmx_handle_exit+0x18c/0x5a0 [kvm_intel] kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0xc55/0x1c20 [kvm] kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x2d5/0x980 [kvm] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x8a/0xd0 do_syscall_64+0xb5/0x730 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 RIP: 0033:0x47fa3f ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- The Linux kernel CVE team has assigned CVE-2026-23401 to this issue. Affected and fixed versions =========================== Issue introduced in 5.13 with commit a54aa15c6bda3ca7e2f9e040ba968a1da303e24f and fixed in 7.0-rc6 with commit aad885e774966e97b675dfe928da164214a71605 Please see https://www.kernel.org for a full list of currently supported kernel versions by the kernel community. Unaffected versions might change over time as fixes are backported to older supported kernel versions. The official CVE entry at https://cve.org/CVERecord/?id=CVE-2026-23401 will be updated if fixes are backported, please check that for the most up to date information about this issue. Affected files ============== The file(s) affected by this issue are: arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c Mitigation ========== The Linux kernel CVE team recommends that you update to the latest stable kernel version for this, and many other bugfixes. Individual changes are never tested alone, but rather are part of a larger kernel release. Cherry-picking individual commits is not recommended or supported by the Linux kernel community at all. If however, updating to the latest release is impossible, the individual changes to resolve this issue can be found at these commits: https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/aad885e774966e97b675dfe928da164214a71605

See more information about CVE-2026-23401 from MITRE CVE dictionary and NIST NVD

NOTE: The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.

CVSS v3 metrics

Base Score:	8.8
Vector String:	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Version:	3.1
Attack Vector:	Local
Attack Complexity:	Low
Privileges Required:	Low
User Interaction:	None
Scope:	Changed
Confidentiality Impact:	High
Integrity Impact:	High
Availability Impact:	High

Errata information

Platform	Errata	Release Date
Oracle Linux version 10 (kernel-uek)	ELSA-2026-50170	2026-03-26
Oracle Linux version 8 (kernel-uek)	ELSA-2026-50171	2026-03-26
Oracle Linux version 9 (kernel-uek)	ELSA-2026-50170	2026-03-26
Oracle Linux version 9 (kernel-uek)	ELSA-2026-50171	2026-03-26