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TI-2021-21889 Aliases CVE-2021-47230GHSA-j8hx-6rxw-p4r9

KVM: x86: Immediately reset the MMU context when the SMM flag is cleared

Priority LOW 29CWE-476Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Local
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
Required
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
Denial of service
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
None · High · High
Fix status
Partial Red Hat: 4 without a fix

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CISA ADP. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-476.

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: x86: Immediately reset the MMU context when the SMM flag is cleared Immediately reset the MMU context when the vCPU's SMM flag is cleared so that the SMM flag in the MMU role is always synchronized with the vCPU's flag. If RSM fails (which isn't correctly emulated), KVM will bail without calling post_leave_smm() and leave the MMU in a bad state. The bad MMU role can lead to a NULL pointer dereference when grabbing a shadow page's rmap for a page fault as the initial lookups for the gfn will happen with the vCPU's SMM flag (=0), whereas the rmap lookup will use the shadow page's SMM flag, which comes from the MMU (=1). SMM has an entirely different set of memslots, and so the initial lookup can find a memslot (SMM=0) and then explode on the rmap memslot lookup (SMM=1). general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000000: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007] CPU: 1 PID: 8410 Comm: syz-executor382 Not tainted 5.13.0-rc5-syzkaller #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 01/01/2011 RIP: 0010:__gfn_to_rmap arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c:935 [inline] RIP: 0010:gfn_to_rmap+0x2b0/0x4d0 arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c:947 Code: <42> 80 3c 20 00 74 08 4c 89 ff e8 f1 79 a9 00 4c 89 fb 4d 8b 37 44 RSP: 0018:ffffc90000ffef98 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff888015b9f414 RCX: ffff888019669c40 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000001 RDI: 0000000000000001 RBP: 0000000000000001 R08: ffffffff811d9cdb R09: ffffed10065a6002 R10: ffffed10065a6002 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: dffffc0000000000 R13: 0000000000000003 R14: 0000000000000001 R15: 0000000000000000 FS: 000000000124b300(0000) GS:ffff8880b9b00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 0000000028e31000 CR4: 00000000001526e0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: rmap_add arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c:965 [inline] mmu_set_spte+0x862/0xe60 arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c:2604 __direct_map arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c:2862 [inline] direct_page_fault+0x1f74/0x2b70 arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c:3769 kvm_mmu_do_page_fault arch/x86/kvm/mmu.h:124 [inline] kvm_mmu_page_fault+0x199/0x1440 arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c:5065 vmx_handle_exit+0x26/0x160 arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c:6122 vcpu_enter_guest+0x3bdd/0x9630 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:9428 vcpu_run+0x416/0xc20 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:9494 kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x4e8/0xa40 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:9722 kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x70f/0xbb0 arch/x86/kvm/../../../virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:3460 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline] __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:1069 [inline] __se_sys_ioctl+0xfb/0x170 fs/ioctl.c:1055 do_syscall_64+0x3f/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:47 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae RIP: 0033:0x440ce9

Why it matters now

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00232 14th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Partial Linux (Linux): 5.4.128, 5.10.46, 5.12.13 +1Red Hat: 4 without a fix

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
None
Automatable
No
Technical impact
Partial

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
LinuxLinux5.1 and later5.4.128, 5.10.46, 5.12.13, 5.13Patch availableCNA
  • Linux VendorLinux Affected 5.1 and later Fixed in 5.4.128, 5.10.46, 5.12.13, 5.13 Patch available CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 7

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*5.1 to before 5.4.128; 5.5 to before 5.10.46; 5.11 to before 5.12.13VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*5.13 rc1VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*5.13 rc2VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*5.13 rc3VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*5.13 rc4VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*5.13 rc5VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:*5.13 rc6VulnerableLinux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.1 to before 5.4.128; 5.5 to before 5.10.46; 5.11 to before 5.12.13 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.13 rc1 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.13 rc2 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.13 rc3 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.13 rc4 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.13 rc5 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.13 rc6 Vulnerable ·Linux

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.4.128, 5.10.46, 5.12.13, 5.13

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →

ProductStatusPlan or fix
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6AffectedNo fix planned: Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7AffectedNo fix planned: Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8AffectedNo fix planned: Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9AffectedNo fix yet
Not affected: 1 product
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2021-47230
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-j8hx-6rxw-p4r9

References

  • TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2021-05514 Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACE KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.3
See all 15278 →

Sources