CVE-2026-98715

KVM: SVM: Preserve TLB control (i.e. pending TLB flush) on failed VMRUN

Published Oct 18, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 7.8 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

KVM: SVM: Preserve TLB control (i.e. pending TLB flush) on failed VMRUN

Don't reset the VMCB's TLB control back to "do nothing" on a failed VMRUN,
as empirical testing shows that the CPU performs the requested TLB flush if
and only if VMRUN is successful, i.e. clearing TLB control on a failed
VMRUN effectively drops a TLB flush.

Explicitly track the need to flush all ASIDs on a per-CPU basis, as the
ASID reuse condition is tied to the pCPU, not to the vCPU. As a bonus,
this also obviates the need to avoid clobbering FLUSH_ALL_ASID with
TLB_CONTROL_FLUSH_ASID, e.g. in svm_flush_tlb_asid().

Deliberately don't bother saving/restoring the "old" tlb_ctl on failure,
in quotes because it's not exactly the old tlb_ctl, it's the tlb_ctl from
after pre_svm_run(), but before updating tlb_ctl for flush_all_asids. If
VMRUN fails and TLB_CONTROL_FLUSH_ALL_ASID is forced, then the next
successful run of the VMCB *may* unnecessarily flush all ASIDs, which
strictly speaking could result in noisy neighbor issues. However, the
fact that new_asid() is already guest-triggerable, because of KVM's flawed
behavior of clearing the ASID on emulated INIT, means that a guest can
already trigger a flush of all ASIDs at roughly the same rate. And once
KVM stops clobbering the ASID on emulated INIT, *or* assigns a static ASID
to each vCPU, this flaw goes away.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-9018-1 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-9018-2 Linux kernel (HWE) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-9019-1 Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-9020-1 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-400
Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-459
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.8, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H'}

threat_severity

Important

Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-400
Type Values Removed Values Added
Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: SVM: Preserve TLB control (i.e. pending TLB flush) on failed VMRUN Don't reset the VMCB's TLB control back to "do nothing" on a failed VMRUN, as empirical testing shows that the CPU performs the requested TLB flush if and only if VMRUN is successful, i.e. clearing TLB control on a failed VMRUN effectively drops a TLB flush. Explicitly track the need to flush all ASIDs on a per-CPU basis, as the ASID reuse condition is tied to the pCPU, not to the vCPU. As a bonus, this also obviates the need to avoid clobbering FLUSH_ALL_ASID with TLB_CONTROL_FLUSH_ASID, e.g. in svm_flush_tlb_asid(). Deliberately don't bother saving/restoring the "old" tlb_ctl on failure, in quotes because it's not exactly the old tlb_ctl, it's the tlb_ctl from after pre_svm_run(), but before updating tlb_ctl for flush_all_asids. If VMRUN fails and TLB_CONTROL_FLUSH_ALL_ASID is forced, then the next successful run of the VMCB *may* unnecessarily flush all ASIDs, which strictly speaking could result in noisy neighbor issues. However, the fact that new_asid() is already guest-triggerable, because of KVM's flawed behavior of clearing the ASID on emulated INIT, means that a guest can already trigger a flush of all ASIDs at roughly the same rate. And once KVM stops clobbering the ASID on emulated INIT, *or* assigns a static ASID to each vCPU, this flaw goes away.
Title KVM: SVM: Preserve TLB control (i.e. pending TLB flush) on failed VMRUN
First Time appeared Linux
Linux linux Kernel
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Linux
Linux linux Kernel
References
Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
Linux
Published
Updated
Nov 10, 2026, 6:15 PM
Reserved
Sep 25, 2026, 10:25 AM
Status
Received
Published
Oct 18, 2026, 4:17 PM
Modified
Nov 10, 2026, 7:22 PM
Severity
Important
Public date
Oct 18, 2026, 12:00 AM