KVM: x86/mmu: Only WARN in direct MMUs when overwriting shadow-present SPTE
Published Apr 1, 2026
5.5
MEDIUMCVSS 3.1
EPSS 0.17%
Description
Adjust KVM's sanity check against overwriting a shadow-present SPTE with a another SPTE with a different target PFN to only apply to direct MMUs, i.e. only to MMUs without shadowed gPTEs. While it's impossible for KVM to overwrite a shadow-present SPTE in response to a guest write, writes from outside the scope of KVM, e.g. from host userspace, aren't detected by KVM's write tracking and so can break KVM's shadow paging rules.
------------[ cut here ]------------ pfn != spte_to_pfn(*sptep) WARNING: arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c:3069 at mmu_set_spte+0x1e4/0x440 [kvm], CPU#0: vmx_ept_stale_r/872 Modules linked in: kvm_intel kvm irqbypass CPU: 0 UID: 1000 PID: 872 Comm: vmx_ept_stale_r Not tainted 7.0.0-rc2-eafebd2d2ab0-sink-vm #319 PREEMPT Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015 RIP: 0010:mmu_set_spte+0x1e4/0x440 [kvm] Call Trace: <TASK> ept_page_fault+0x535/0x7f0 [kvm] kvm_mmu_do_page_fault+0xee/0x1f0 [kvm] kvm_mmu_page_fault+0x8d/0x620 [kvm] vmx_handle_exit+0x18c/0x5a0 [kvm_intel] kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0xc55/0x1c20 [kvm] kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x2d5/0x980 [kvm] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x8a/0xd0 do_syscall_64+0xb5/0x730 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 </TASK> ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
Affected products
-
- Version StatusaffectedConstraints
- Version StatusaffectedConstraints
- Version StatusaffectedConstraints
- Version
-
- Version 6.16StatusaffectedConstraints-
- Version 0StatusunaffectedConstraints<6.16
- Version 6.18.21StatusunaffectedConstraints<=6.18.*
- Version 6.19.11StatusunaffectedConstraints<=6.19.*
- Version 7.0StatusunaffectedConstraints<=*
- Version
Default status is the baseline for the product, each version can override it (e.g. patched versions marked unaffected).
- ≥ 6.16.1 · < 6.18.21
- ≥ 6.19 · < 6.19.11
- 6.16
- 7.0
- 7.0
- 7.0
- 7.0
- 7.0
- 7.0
- 7.0
No data.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
kernel
Fix deferred
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
kernel
Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
kernel
Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
kernel-rt
Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
kernel
Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
kernel-rt
Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
kernel
Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
kernel-rt
Not affected
| Product | Package | State | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | kernel | Fix deferred | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | kernel | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | kernel | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | kernel-rt | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | kernel | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | kernel-rt | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | kernel | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | kernel-rt | Not affected | n/a |
No package ranges for this CVE.
Remediation
No remediation recorded yet.
Metrics
No CVSS v4.0 score for this CVE.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
No CVSS v3.0 score for this CVE.
No CVSS v2.0 score for this CVE.
This CVE is not in the KEV list.
No CISA SSVC assessment for this CVE yet.
Estimated probability of exploitation in the wild in the next 30 days (FIRST EPSS). As of Oct 1, 2026.
Score over time
Apr–Oct 2026- EPSS v4
- EPSS v5
Percentile over time
- EPSS v4
- EPSS v5
Table of values (3 key points)
Flat stretches are collapsed; showing up to 120 newest points.
| Date | Score | Percentile | Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 1, 2026 | 0.17% (0.00165) | 5.18th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Jun 15, 2026 | 0.17% (0.00165) | 6.07th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Apr 1, 2026 | 0.02% (0.00018) | 4.72th | v4 (v2025.03.14) |
References (8)
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-23402 Vendor Advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2453800 Issue Tracking
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a1e0f7150639bc30a8e75476d1c7daab77d44992 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bab090e8fd5607f77379ea78b9d0c683cb1538a9 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/df83746075778958954aa0460cca55f4b3fc9c02 Patch
- https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026040110-CVE-2026-23402-c852@gregkh/T
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23402
- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-23402
Change history (0)
No recorded changes yet.