CVE-2021-47255: kvm: LAPIC: Restore guard to prevent illegal APIC register access

Severity: high (CVSS 7.1 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2024-05-21 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: kvm: LAPIC: Restore guard to prevent illegal APIC register access Per the SDM, "any access that touches bytes 4 through 15 of an APIC register may cause undefined behavior and must not be executed." Worse, such an access in kvm_lapic_reg_read can result in a leak of kernel stack contents. Prior to commit 01402cf81051 ("kvm: LAPIC: write down valid APIC registers"), such an access was explicitly disallowed. Restore the guard that was removed in that commit.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 5.3 before 5.4.128; from 5.5 before 5.10.46; from 5.11 before 5.12.13; 5.13-rc1, 5.13-rc2, 5.13-rc3, 5.13-rc4, 5.13-rc5, 5.13-rc6 — fixed in 5.10.46, 5.12.13, 5.4.128

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.10.46, 5.12.13, 5.4.128. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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