Live › vulnerability › CVE-2026-99082
Go to dashboardThe Linux kernel's KVM per-vCPU MMIO cache used the wrong memslot address space when a vCPU runs in System Management Mode, so a cached entry could stay valid after the SMM memslots change. A guest can then get RAM at the same frame returned to userspace as an MMIO exit, letting a write bypass KVM write tracking and leave shadow page tables based on stale nested EPT contents.
Summary written from the sources below. Check the originals before acting.
First seen by InfraStack 2026-10-23 21:57 UTC. All times on this page are UTC.
Hosts running the Linux kernel with KVM on x86 that run guests using SMM and nested virtualization are the systems where this matters. The sources do not state which kernel versions are affected, and hosts without KVM or without guests using SMM are unlikely to be exposed.
No product ranges from the sources yet.
Each row is the first time that source carried this signal. The analyst’s rows are its own findings.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
KVM: x86: Use active memslots for the per-vCPU MMIO cache
KVM tags the per-vCPU MMIO cache with a memslot generation so that a memslot update invalidates cached MMIO information. Both the fill and validation paths use kvm_memslots(), which unconditionally selects address space 0, even when the vCPU is running in SMM and using address space 1.
Commit 56f17dd3fbc4 ("kvm: x86: fix stale mmio cache bug") added the memslot generation to the cache key so that a memslot update could not leave a stale entry valid. When commit 699023e23965 ("KVM: x86: add SMM to the MMU role, support SMRAM address space") added the SMM address space, these helpers were not converted to use the active memslots.
Consequently, an update to the SMM memslots can leave an entry from the old SMM address space apparently valid after the vCPU returns to the normal address space. A guest can then cause an access to valid RAM at the same GFN to be returned to userspace as KVM_EXIT_MMIO.
Completing that exit through the VMM's RAM address space writes the backing page without going through KVM's write-tracking path. If the page backs a nested EPT table, KVM can continue using shadow translations derived from the old contents. The WARN_ON_ONCE() in kvm_mmu_write_protect_fault() catches this invalid cache and memslot combination.
Use the vCPU's active memslots when caching and validating the entry. Memslot generations are unique across address spaces, so the generation also distinguishes the normal and SMM views. This matches the MMIO SPTE cache, which already uses kvm_vcpu_memslots().
On an unpatched current-mainline kernel, a regression test that fills the cache in SMM and updates only the SMM memslots fails the intended RAM write and triggers the kvm_mmu_write_protect_fault() warning. With this change, the same test completes the RAM write without a warning. The x86/smm_test, set_memory_region_test, and memslot_modification_stress_test selftests also pass.
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