What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities
CVE-2026-43265: KVM: x86: Ignore -EBUSY when checking nested events from vcpu_block()
- 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
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: x86: Ignore -EBUSY when checking nested events from vcpu_block() Ignore -EBUSY when checking nested events after exiting a blocking state while L2 is active, as exiting to userspace will generate a spurious userspace exit, usually with KVM_EXIT_UNKNOWN, and likely lead to the VM's demise. Continuing with the wakeup isn't perfect either, as *something* has gone sideways if a vCPU is awakened in L2 with an injected event (or worse, a nested run pending), but continuing on gives the VM a decent chance of surviving without any major side effects. As explained in the Fixes commits, it _should_ be impossible for a vCPU to be put into a blocking state with an already-injected event (exception, IRQ, or NMI). Unfortunately, userspace can stuff MP_STATE and/or injected events, and thus put the vCPU into what should be an impossible state. Don't bother trying to preserve the WARN, e.g. with an anti-syzkaller Kconfig, as WARNs can (hopefully) be added in paths where _KVM_ would be violating x86 architecture, e.g. by WARNing if KVM attempts to inject an exception or interrupt while the vCPU isn't running.
Affected products
- Linux kernel: from 6.1 before 6.1.167; from 6.2 before 6.6.130; from 6.7 before 6.12.77; from 6.13 before 6.18.17; from 6.19 before 6.19.6 — fixed in 6.1.167, 6.12.77, 6.18.17, 6.19.6, 6.6.130
How to fix
Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.1.167, 6.12.77, 6.18.17, 6.19.6. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1c957773063ed3264953597e32990a748381caf6
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1e88b5f854bdb469424132e0bb44793ad7a7c20a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2657439265d34a911886b916ba8be97ecc117d51
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/78265cd066d73a5cb41c088fcae4a2515e480d97
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ead63640d4e72e6f6d464f4e31f7fecb79af8869
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ec3be7dc9391085a2d96700e159d66d1328b7ff6
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