CVE-2026-98471

KVM: SEV: Do cache maintenance on the source VM during intra-host migration

HIGH
7.1
CVSS Score
Published: October 18, 2026 at 03:15 PM UTC
Updated: October 24, 2026 at 02:16 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
HIGH7.1
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: SEV: Do cache maintenance on the source VM during intra-host migration Manually perform cache maintenance on the source VM during intra-host migration to ensure no stale data is left in CPU caches after the VM is destroyed. Because the source VM is "converted" to a non-SEV VM, KVM's memory reclaim flows won't trigger cache maintenance, e.g. when all guest memory is reclaimed in response to detaching from the mmu_notifier. Note, relying on the destination VM to do cache maintenance isn't an option as KVM doesn't require identical guest memory configurations, i.e. the source VM may have access to memory that the destination VM does not. Enforcing equivalent memory configurations is infeasible, as it would require a *deep* comparison of memslots, e.g. to verify that not only are the memslot identical, but what the memslots point at is also identical.

Affected

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

5.16b56639318bb2be66aceba92836279714488709b4
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.18.55 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.2.9 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.3 (unaffected)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

CVSS

7.1HIGHLinux
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusRECEIVED

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