HIGH
kvm ShadowPage UAF
CVE-2026-46113
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
KernelScan AI8.5HIGH
01Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: x86: Fix shadow paging use-after-free due to unexpected GFN The shadow MMU computes GFNs for direct shadow pages using sp->gfn plus the SPTE index. This assumption breaks for shadow paging if the guest page tables are modified between VM entries (similar to commit aad885e77496, "KVM: x86/mmu: Drop/zap existing present SPTE even when creating an MMIO SPTE", 2026-03-27). The flow is as follows: - a PDE is installed for a 2MB mapping, and a page in that area is accessed. KVM creates a kvm_mmu_page consisting of 512 4KB pages; the kvm_mmu_page is marked by FNAME(fetch) as direct-mapped because the guest's mapping is a huge page (and thus contiguous). - the PDE mapping is changed from outside the guest. - the guest accesses another page in the same 2MB area. KVM installs a new leaf SPTE and rmap entry; the SPTE uses the "correct" GFN (i.e. based on the new mapping, as changed in the previous step) but that GFN is outside of the [sp->gfn, sp->gfn + 511] range; therefore the rmap entry cannot be found and removed when the kvm_mmu_page is zapped. - the memslot that covers the first 2MB mapping is deleted, and the kvm_mmu_page for the now-invalid GPA is zapped. However, rmap_remove() only looks at the [sp->gfn, sp->gfn + 511] range established in step 1, and fails to find the rmap entry that was recorded by step 3. - any operation that causes an rmap walk for the same page accessed by step 3 then walks a stale rmap and dereferences a freed kvm_mmu_page. This includes dirty logging or MMU notifier invalidations (e.g., from MADV_DONTNEED). The underlying issue is that KVM's walking of shadow PTEs assumes that if a SPTE is present when KVM wants to install a non-leaf SPTE, then the existing kvm_mmu_page must be for the correct gfn. Because the only way for the gfn to be wrong is if KVM messed up and failed to zap a SPTE... which shouldn't happen, but *actually* only happens in response to a guest write. That bug dates back literally forever, as even the first version of KVM assumes that the GFN matches and walks into the "wrong" shadow page. However, that was only an imprecision until 2032a93d66fa ("KVM: MMU: Don't allocate gfns page for direct mmu pages") came along. Fix it by checking for a target gfn mismatch and zapping the existing SPTE. That way the old SP and rmap entries are gone, KVM installs the rmap in the right location, and everyone is happy.
02KernelScan AI Analysis
Risk summary
A use-after-free vulnerability in KVM's x86 shadow MMU allows a guest VM to cause host kernel memory corruption. By modifying guest page tables and accessing memory in a specific pattern, a guest can cause KVM to install shadow page table entries (SPTEs) with guest frame numbers (GFNs) outside the expected range. When the corresponding shadow page is later zapped (e.g., via memslot deletion or MMU notifier), the reverse mapping (rmap) entry is not found and removed, leaving a stale pointer. Subsequent rmap walks dereference the freed kvm_mmu_page, potentially leading to host kernel crashes, information disclosure, or arbitrary code execution.
Vulnerability analysis
The vulnerability stems from KVM's assumption that shadow page GFNs remain consistent when guest page tables change. When a guest modifies a page directory entry (PDE) for a huge page mapping and then accesses another page in the same region, KVM may install a leaf SPTE using a GFN outside the original shadow page's range. The rmap entry is recorded against the old shadow page, but rmap_remove() only searches within the original [sp->gfn, sp->gfn + 511] range. When the memslot is deleted and the shadow page is zapped, the stale rmap entry remains. Subsequent operations that walk the rmap (such as dirty logging or MMU notifier invalidations from MADV_DONTNEED) dereference the freed kvm_mmu_page structure. The fix adds a GFN mismatch check when installing non-leaf SPTEs and properly zaps inconsistent shadow pages before linking new ones.
03Fix Versions
| Branch | Fixed in | Patch commit |
|---|---|---|
| 6.1 | 6.1.175 | e9d4ea13aa2b |
| 6.12 | 6.12.88 | 06c19c967b84 |
| 6.18 | 6.18.30 | 738ec97b1855 |
| 6.6 | 6.6.140 | 488e386484ec |
| 7.0 | 7.0.7 | 14d1e55dfd2c |
| mainline | 7.1-rc3 | 0cb2af2ea66a |