CVE-2022-2196: Speculative execution attacks in KVM VMX

Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
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: 2023-01-09 · updated 2026-08-07
Weakness: CWE-1188

Description

A regression exists in the Linux Kernel within KVM: nVMX that allowed for speculative execution attacks. L2 can carry out Spectre v2 attacks on L1 due to L1 thinking it doesn't need retpolines or IBPB after running L2 due to KVM (L0) advertising eIBRS support to L1. An attacker at L2 with code execution can execute code on an indirect branch on the host machine. We recommend upgrading to Kernel 6.2 or applying the relevant stable backports (v5.4.233, v5.10.170, v5.15.96, v6.1.14).

Affected products

Debian Linux: 10.0
Linux kernel: from 5.4.47 before 5.4.233; from 5.6.19 before 5.7; from 5.7.3 before 5.10.170; from 5.11 before 5.15.96; from 5.16 before 6.1.14 — fixed in 5.10.170, 5.15.96, 5.4.233, 5.7, 6.1.14

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.10.170, 5.15.96, 5.4.233, 5.7. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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