iommu/sva: invalidate stale IOTLB entries for kernel address space
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 4 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iommu/sva: invalidate stale IOTLB entries for kernel address space Introduce a new IOMMU interface to flush IOTLB paging cache entries for the CPU kernel address space. This interface is invoked from the x86 architecture code that manages combined user and kernel page tables, specifically before any kernel page table page is freed and reused. This addresses the main issue with vfree() which is a common occurrence and can be triggered by unprivileged users. While this resolves the primary problem, it doesn't address some extremely rare case related to memory unplug of memory that was present as reserved memory at boot, which cannot be triggered by unprivileged users. The discussion can be found at the link below. Enable SVA on x86 architecture since the IOMMU can now receive notification to flush the paging cache before freeing the CPU kernel page table pages.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Total
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.18.7, 6.19
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Not affected: 1 product
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2025-71202
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-c4h6-jgrf-pj9p
- 2026-10-16 CISA SSVC decision points changed
- 2026-10-19 Weakness changed · CISA ADP
References
More Linux Kernel vulnerabilities
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- 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
Sources
- CVE-2025-71202 · CVE Program
- CVE-2025-71202 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-c4h6-jgrf-pj9p · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2025-71202 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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