CVE-2026-98720 PUBLISHED

KVM: nVMX: Force MSR bitmap refresh if runtime eVMCS controls are modified

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 25.09.2026 Published: 18.10.2026 Updated: 18.10.2026

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

KVM: nVMX: Force MSR bitmap refresh if runtime eVMCS controls are modified

Force a refresh of the vmcs02 MSR bitmap during nested VM-Enter if the runtime eVMCS controls (pin, primary, secondary, etc.) are being updated. If L1 isn't intercepting TPR writes, runs L2 with TPR virtualization, and then runs the same L2 with TPR virtualization disabled, KVM will fail to refresh msr_bitmap02 and leave TPR in passthrough mode even though TPR virtualization is disabled. I.e. failure to refresh the bitmap lets L2 (or L1 by proxy) read and write L0's TPR.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 502d2bf5f2fd7c05adc2d4f057910bd5d4c4c63e to 2db11598b59f16ddb6420693f9a4ac4efc3d4789 (excl.)
  • affected from 502d2bf5f2fd7c05adc2d4f057910bd5d4c4c63e to f6189e26d0237e47e2f04f9cb1e43fd19a9b2f3a (excl.)
  • affected from 502d2bf5f2fd7c05adc2d4f057910bd5d4c4c63e to 1e497e3bdab6983deb68a1d26b488027deb4527f (excl.)
  • affected from 502d2bf5f2fd7c05adc2d4f057910bd5d4c4c63e to 2abb25273c82061dd4670690c81c319c03740bf6 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 5.17 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 5.17 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.113 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.56 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2.10 to 7.2.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.3-rc6 to * (incl.)

References