VYPR
Unrated severityNVD Advisory· Published Oct 28, 2025· Updated Apr 15, 2026

CVE-2025-40026

CVE-2025-40026

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

KVM: x86: Don't (re)check L1 intercepts when completing userspace I/O

When completing emulation of instruction that generated a userspace exit for I/O, don't recheck L1 intercepts as KVM has already finished that phase of instruction execution, i.e. has already committed to allowing L2 to perform I/O. If L1 (or host userspace) modifies the I/O permission bitmaps during the exit to userspace, KVM will treat the access as being intercepted despite already having emulated the I/O access.

Pivot on EMULTYPE_NO_DECODE to detect that KVM is completing emulation. Of the three users of EMULTYPE_NO_DECODE, only complete_emulated_io() (the intended "recipient") can reach the code in question. gp_interception()'s use is mutually exclusive with is_guest_mode(), and complete_emulated_insn_gp() unconditionally pairs EMULTYPE_NO_DECODE with EMULTYPE_SKIP.

The bad behavior was detected by a syzkaller program that toggles port I/O interception during the userspace I/O exit, ultimately resulting in a WARN on vcpu->arch.pio.count being non-zero due to KVM no completing emulation of the I/O instruction.

WARNING: CPU: 23 PID: 1083 at arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:8039 emulator_pio_in_out+0x154/0x170 [kvm] Modules linked in: kvm_intel kvm irqbypass CPU: 23 UID: 1000 PID: 1083 Comm: repro Not tainted 6.16.0-rc5-c1610d2d66b1-next-vm #74 NONE Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015 RIP: 0010:emulator_pio_in_out+0x154/0x170 [kvm] PKRU: 55555554 Call Trace:

kvm_fast_pio+0xd6/0x1d0 [kvm] vmx_handle_exit+0x149/0x610 [kvm_intel] kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0xda8/0x1ac0 [kvm] kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x244/0x8c0 [kvm] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x8a/0xd0 do_syscall_64+0x5d/0xc60 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53

AI Insight

LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.

KVM x86 bug: rechecking L1 I/O intercepts during userspace exit completion can cause incomplete emulation and a kernel WARN.

Vulnerability

In the Linux kernel's KVM x86 subsystem, a bug exists in the handling of I/O emulation for nested guests (L2). When a L2 guest performs I/O that triggers a userspace exit (e.g., to QEMU), KVM emulates the instruction and then completes the emulation after the exit. During this completion phase, KVM incorrectly rechecks L1's I/O interception permissions. This can lead to a scenario where L1 or host userspace modifies the I/O permission bitmaps while the exit is being processed, causing KVM to treat the I/O as intercepted despite having already committed to emulating it.

Exploitation

The attack surface requires a nested virtualization environment where L1 can alter I/O permission bitmaps during the userspace exit. A malicious L1 or host userspace could trigger this by toggling port I/O interception at the right moment. The syzkaller fuzzer demonstrated the issue by causing a kernel WARN on vcpu->arch.pio.count being non-zero, indicating that KVM failed to complete the I/O emulation properly [1].

Impact

The primary impact is a kernel WARN and potential incomplete I/O emulation, which can lead to guest instability or denial of service. The vulnerability is not directly exploitable for privilege escalation, as it only affects nested virtualization and requires specific timing conditions. However, it can disrupt the operation of nested guests.

Mitigation

The fix, applied to stable kernel trees, avoids rechecking L1 intercepts when completing emulation by using the EMULTYPE_NO_DECODE flag to detect the completion path [1][2][3][4]. Users should update to a patched kernel version to eliminate the bug.

AI Insight generated on May 19, 2026. Synthesized from this CVE's description and the cited reference URLs; citations are validated against the source bundle.

Affected products

1

Patches

9

Vulnerability mechanics

Generated on May 9, 2026. Inputs: CWE entries + fix-commit diffs from this CVE's patches. Citations validated against bundle.

References

9

News mentions

0

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