CVE-2026-53345

KVM: Don't WARN if memory is dirtied without a vCPU when the VM is dying

MEDIUM
5.5
CVSS Score
Published: July 1, 2026 at 01:32 PM UTC
Updated: July 22, 2026 at 07:34 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
MEDIUM5.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.1%

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: Don't WARN if memory is dirtied without a vCPU when the VM is dying When marking a page dirty, complain about not having a running/loaded vCPU if and only if the VM is still alive, i.e. its refcount is non-zero. This will allow fixing a memory leak for x86 SEV-ES guests without hitting what is effectively a false positive on the WARN. For some SEV-ES VM-Exits, KVM keeps a writable mapping of a guest page across an exit to userspace, and typically unmaps the page on the next KVM_RUN. But if userspace never calls KVM_RUN after such an exit, then KVM needs to unmap the page when the vCPU is destroyed, which in turn triggers the WARN about not having a running vCPU. Alternatively, SEV-ES could temporarily load the vCPU to suppress the WARN, as is done in nested_vmx_free_vcpu() (but for completely unrelated reasons; suppressing WARN from nested_put_vmcs12_pages() is pure happenstance). But loading a vCPU during destruction is gross (ideally nVMX code would be cleaned up), risks complicating the SEV-ES code (KVM would need to ensure the temporarily load()+put() only runs when the vCPU isn't already loaded), and is ultimately pointless. The motivation for the WARN is to guard against KVM dirtying guest memory without pushing the corresponding GFN to the active vCPU's dirty ring, e.g. to ensure userspace doesn't miss a dirty page. But for the VM's refcount to reach zero, there can't be _any_ userspace mappings to the dirty ring, as mapping the dirty ring requires doing mmap() on the vCPU FD. I.e. if userspace had a valid mapping for the dirty ring, then the vCPU file and thus the owning VM would still be alive. And so since userspace can't possibly reach the dirty ring, whether or not KVM technically "misses" a push to the dirty ring is irrelevant.

Affected

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

5.17 ≤ v < 6.12.945.17 ≤ v < 6.18.365.17 ≤ v < 6.6.1435.17 ≤ v < 7.0.135.17 ≤ v < 7.16.13 ≤ v < 6.18.366.19 ≤ v < 7.0.136.7 ≤ v < 6.12.942efd61a608b0039911924d2e5d7028eb37496e857.1 rc17.1 rc27.1 rc37.1 rc47.1 rc57.1 rc6
Vendor states this is fixed in 033d39e41fc30f484f4e4f37fb4cd76b12cbb18e (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 343e95c8ecc40e0738975ef4ee24c0c35e800e6b (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 66a8e7ddd901023c89a2733494d827eca3f9c1b0 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 8618004d3e897c0f1b71d9a9ab860461289bb89a (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 99d7d43784ae3235026581e9bf892c036e04c8e6 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.17 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.12.94 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.18.36 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.6.143 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.0.13 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.1 (unaffected)

CVSS

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

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
CWE-401

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