CVE-2026-53359: KVM: x86: Fix shadow paging use-after-free due to unexpected role
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: x86: Fix shadow paging use-after-free due to unexpected role Commit 0cb2af2ea66ad ("KVM: x86: Fix shadow paging use-after-free due to unexpected GFN") fixed a shadow paging mismatch between stored and computed GFNs; the bug could be triggered by changing a PDE mapping from outside the guest, and then deleting a memslot. The rmap_remove() call would miss entries created after the PDE change because the GFN of the leaf SPTE does not match the GFN of the struct kvm_mmu_page. A similar hole however remains if the modified PDE points to a non-leaf page. In this case the gfn can be made to match, but the role does not match: the original large 2MB page creates a kvm_mmu_page with direct=1, while the new 4KB needs a kvm_mmu_page with direct=0. However, kvm_mmu_get_child_sp() does not compare the role, and therefore reuses the page. The next step is installing a leaf (4KB) SPTE on the new path which records an rmap entry under the gfn resolved by the walk. But when that child is zapped its parent kvm_mmu_page has direct=1 and kvm_mmu_page_get_gfn() computes the gfn for the 4KB page as sp->gfn + index instead of using sp->shadowed_translation[] (or sp->gfns[] in older kernels). It therefore fails to remove the recorded entry. When the memslot is dropped the shadow page is freed but the rmap entry survives, as in the scenario that was already fixed. Code that later walks that gfn (dirty logging, MMU notifier invalidation, and so on) dereferences an sptep that lies in the freed page, causing the use-after-free.
Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Tracked companies
Mapped from the CVE’s affected-product data, NVD CPE matches, vendor advisories or package feeds. A mapping means the vendor’s software is named, not that its hosted service was exposed.
Status incidents that name it
No tracked status incident names this CVE.
Affected vendors and products
Linux: Linux
References
- CVE record on cve.org (opens in new tab)
- NVD entry (opens in new tab)
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/0b5e8ead71e683bcf6232db16234cf7e6d553a23 (opens in new tab)
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/1ae7d5a6db6c190ce183e3098ca0e0846e14d462 (opens in new tab)
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/2ad3afa40ac6aa340dada122f9abfa46c0a6eb35 (opens in new tab)
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/5e470998a23e4c3d89ed24e8172cb22747e61efa (opens in new tab)
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/81ccda30b4e83d8f5cc4fd50503c44e3a33abfeb (opens in new tab)
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/9291654d69e08542de37755cebe4d5b02c3170d1 (opens in new tab)
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/b1337aae5e194324e4810d561764e7793f8b3864 (opens in new tab)
- CVE records from the CVE Program (cve.org). CVE® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. (opens in new tab)
- This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. (opens in new tab)
- Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog from CISA. (opens in new tab)
- EPSS scores from FIRST (Exploit Prediction Scoring System). (opens in new tab)