KVM: Disallow toggling KVM_MEM_GUEST_MEMFD on an existing memslot
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: Disallow toggling KVM_MEM_GUEST_MEMFD on an existing memslot Reject attempts to disable KVM_MEM_GUEST_MEMFD on a memslot that was initially created with a guest_memfd binding, as KVM doesn't support toggling KVM_MEM_GUEST_MEMFD on existing memslots. KVM prevents enabling KVM_MEM_GUEST_MEMFD, but doesn't prevent clearing the flag. Failure to reject the new memslot results in a use-after-free due to KVM not unbinding from the guest_memfd instance. Unbinding on a FLAGS_ONLY change is easy enough, and can/will be done as a hardening measure (in anticipation of KVM supporting dirty logging on guest_memfd at some point), but fixing the use-after-free would only address the immediate symptom. ================================================================== BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in kvm_gmem_release+0x362/0x400 [kvm] Write of size 8 at addr ffff8881111ae908 by task repro/745 CPU: 7 UID: 1000 PID: 745 Comm: repro Not tainted 6.18.0-rc6-115d5de2eef3-next-kasan #3 NONE Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x51/0x60 print_report+0xcb/0x5c0 kasan_report+0xb4/0xe0 kvm_gmem_release+0x362/0x400 [kvm] __fput+0x2fa/0x9d0 task_work_run+0x12c/0x200 do_exit+0x6ae/0x2100 do_group_exit+0xa8/0x230 __x64_sys_exit_group+0x3a/0x50 x64_sys_call+0x737/0x740 do_syscall_64+0x5b/0x900 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 RIP: 0033:0x7f581f2eac31 </TASK> Allocated by task 745 on cpu 6 at 9.746971s: kasan_save_stack+0x20/0x40 kasan_save_track+0x13/0x50 __kasan_kmalloc+0x77/0x90 kvm_set_memory_region.part.0+0x652/0x1110 [kvm] kvm_vm_ioctl+0x14b0/0x3290 [kvm] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x129/0x1a0 do_syscall_64+0x5b/0x900 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 Freed by task 745 on cpu 6 at 9.747467s: kasan_save_stack+0x20/0x40 kasan_save_track+0x13/0x50 __kasan_save_free_info+0x37/0x50 __kasan_slab_free+0x3b/0x60 kfree+0xf5/0x440 kvm_set_memslot+0x3c2/0x1160 [kvm] kvm_set_memory_region.part.0+0x86a/0x1110 [kvm] kvm_vm_ioctl+0x14b0/0x3290 [kvm] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x129/0x1a0 do_syscall_64+0x5b/0x900 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.12.64, 6.18.3, 6.19
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Important. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
Not affected: 5 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2025-68810
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-65g7-h87v-v85m
References
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Sources
- CVE-2025-68810 · CVE Program
- CVE-2025-68810 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-65g7-h87v-v85m · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2025-68810 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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