CVE-2009-3640

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: 2009-10-29 · updated 2026-06-16
Weakness: CWE-20

Description

The update_cr8_intercept function in arch/x86/kvm/x86.c in the KVM subsystem in the Linux kernel before 2.6.32-rc1 does not properly handle the absence of an Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC), which allows local users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and system crash) or possibly gain privileges via a call to the kvm_vcpu_ioctl function.

Affected products

Linux kernel: through 2.6.31; 2.6.0, 2.6.1, 2.6.2, 2.6.3, 2.6.4, 2.6.5 (+330)

References

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=88c808fd42b53a7e01a2ac3253ef31fef74cb5af
http://marc.info/?l=oss-security&m=125626965020571&w=2
http://marc.info/?l=oss-security&m=125640417219385&w=2
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/ChangeLog-2.6.32-rc1
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/36805
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/53947
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=88c808fd42b53a7e01a2ac3253ef31fef74cb5af
http://marc.info/?l=oss-security&m=125626965020571&w=2
http://marc.info/?l=oss-security&m=125640417219385&w=2
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/ChangeLog-2.6.32-rc1
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/36805
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/53947

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