CVE-2022-48764: KVM: x86: Free kvm_cpuid_entry2 array on post-KVM_RUN KVM_SET_CPUID{,2}

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.3 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: 2024-06-20 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-401

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: x86: Free kvm_cpuid_entry2 array on post-KVM_RUN KVM_SET_CPUID{,2} Free the "struct kvm_cpuid_entry2" array on successful post-KVM_RUN KVM_SET_CPUID{,2} to fix a memory leak, the callers of kvm_set_cpuid() free the array only on failure. BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xffff88810963a800 (size 2048): comm "syz-executor025", pid 3610, jiffies 4294944928 (age 8.080s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0d 00 00 00 ................ 47 65 6e 75 6e 74 65 6c 69 6e 65 49 00 00 00 00 GenuntelineI.... backtrace: [<ffffffff814948ee>] kmalloc_node include/linux/slab.h:604 [inline] [<ffffffff814948ee>] kvmalloc_node+0x3e/0x100 mm/util.c:580 [<ffffffff814950f2>] kvmalloc include/linux/slab.h:732 [inline] [<ffffffff814950f2>] vmemdup_user+0x22/0x100 mm/util.c:199 [<ffffffff8109f5ff>] kvm_vcpu_ioctl_set_cpuid2+0x8f/0xf0 arch/x86/kvm/cpuid.c:423 [<ffffffff810711b9>] kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl+0xb99/0x1e60 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:5251 [<ffffffff8103e92d>] kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x4ad/0x950 arch/x86/kvm/../../../virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:4066 [<ffffffff815afacc>] vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline] [<ffffffff815afacc>] __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:874 [inline] [<ffffffff815afacc>] __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:860 [inline] [<ffffffff815afacc>] __x64_sys_ioctl+0xfc/0x140 fs/ioctl.c:860 [<ffffffff844a3335>] do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] [<ffffffff844a3335>] do_syscall_64+0x35/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 [<ffffffff84600068>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 5.16.3 before 5.16.5 — fixed in 5.16.5

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.16.5. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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