CVE-2024-26992

KVM: x86/pmu: Disable support for adaptive PEBS

LOW
3.3
CVSS Score
Published: May 1, 2024 at 05:27 AM UTC
Updated: August 5, 2026 at 12:04 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
LOW3.3
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

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

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

6.0 ≤ v < 6.1.886.0 ≤ v < 6.6.296.0 ≤ v < 6.8.86.0 ≤ v < 6.96.2 ≤ v < 6.6.296.7 ≤ v < 6.8.86.9 rc16.9 rc26.9 rc36.9 rc4c59a1f106f5cd4843c097069ff1bb2ad72103a67
Vendor states this is fixed in 037e48ceccf163899374b601afb6ae8d0bf1d2ac (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0fb74c00d140a66128afc0003785dcc57e69d312 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7a7650b3ac23e5fc8c990f00e94f787dc84e3175 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 9e985cbf2942a1bb8fcef9adc2a17d90fd7ca8ee (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.0 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.88 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.6.29 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.8.8 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.9 (unaffected)

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
LOW
Integrity
NONE
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
NVD-CWE-noinfo

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