CVE-2009-2287

Severity: medium (CVSS 4.9 v2.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2009-07-01 · updated 2026-06-16
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

The kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_set_sregs function in the KVM in Linux kernel 2.6 before 2.6.30, when running on x86 systems, does not validate the page table root in a KVM_SET_SREGS call, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (crash or hang) via a crafted cr3 value, which triggers a NULL pointer dereference in the gfn_to_rmap function.

Affected products

Canonical Ubuntu Linux: 6.06, 8.04, 8.10, 9.04
Debian Linux: 4.0, 5.0
Linux kernel: from 2.6.0 before 2.6.30 — fixed in 2.6.30

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 2.6.30. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git%3Ba=blob%3Bf=queue-2.6.30/kvm-x86-check-for-cr3-validity-in-ioctl_set_sregs.patch%3Bh=b48a47dad2cf76358b327368f80c0805e6370c68%3Bhb=e7c45b24f298b5d9efd7d401150f64a1b51aaac4
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commitdiff%3Bh=59839dfff5eabca01cc4e20b45797a60a80af8cb
http://secunia.com/advisories/35675
http://secunia.com/advisories/36045
http://secunia.com/advisories/36054
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=893831&aid=2687641&group_id=180599
http://www.debian.org/security/2009/dsa-1845
http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2010:198
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/06/30/1
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-807-1
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git%3Ba=blob%3Bf=queue-2.6.30/kvm-x86-check-for-cr3-validity-in-ioctl_set_sregs.patch%3Bh=b48a47dad2cf76358b327368f80c0805e6370c68%3Bhb=e7c45b24f298b5d9efd7d401150f64a1b51aaac4
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commitdiff%3Bh=59839dfff5eabca01cc4e20b45797a60a80af8cb

Get alerted when CVE-2009-2287 or the next vulnerability affects your stack