CVE-2026-43096: mshv: Fix infinite fault loop on permission-denied GPA intercepts

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-05-06 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-835

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mshv: Fix infinite fault loop on permission-denied GPA intercepts Prevent infinite fault loops when guests access memory regions without proper permissions. Currently, mshv_handle_gpa_intercept() attempts to remap pages for all faults on movable memory regions, regardless of whether the access type is permitted. When a guest writes to a read-only region, the remap succeeds but the region remains read-only, causing immediate re-fault and spinning the vCPU indefinitely. Validate intercept access type against region permissions before attempting remaps. Reject writes to non-writable regions and executes to non-executable regions early, returning false to let the VMM handle the intercept appropriately. This also closes a potential DoS vector where malicious guests could intentionally trigger these fault loops to consume host resources.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 6.19 before 6.19.14; 7.0-rc1, 7.0-rc2, 7.0-rc3, 7.0-rc4, 7.0-rc5, 7.0-rc6 (+1) — fixed in 6.19.14

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.19.14. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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