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CVE-2026-74568

KVM: arm64: vgic: Fix race between LPI release and re-registration

9.3 EPSS 0.2% AV:L

Published 2026-08-15 (2 months ago) by the Linux kernel CNA. Subsystem arch/arm64. Debian urgency: unimportant.

What to do, per Debian release

Debian's own status for CVE-2026-74568 in every release this site tracks, and what each one means in practice. Every status below is the one the Debian Security Team publishes for this CVE. source

ReleaseStatus VersionWhat this means
Debian 12bookwormnot affected6.1.190-1Nothing to do. bookworm never shipped the vulnerable code.
Debian 13trixienot affected6.12.113-1Nothing to do. trixie never shipped the vulnerable code.
Debian 14forkyfixed7.1.8-1Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.8-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts.
Debian unstablesidfixed7.1.8-1Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.8-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts.

The vulnerability

What the bug is

Fix a potential race between decrementing an LPI's reference count and evicting that structure from the LPI xarray. LPI structures are maintained in the VGIC LPI xarray (dist->lpi_xa). When the reference count of an LPI structure drops to zero, vgic_release_lpi_locked() removes the structure from the xarray and frees it under the xarray lock. However, the release of an LPI can race with a concurrent LPI re-registration with the same INTID via vgic_add_lpi() on another CPU, since the reference count drop and the xarray eviction are not performed in a single atomic step. This can happen e.g. if the guest issues a DISCARD while the LPI is still referenced from a vCPU's active-pending list (ap_list), and the same INTID is re-mapped via MAPTI. Particularly, vgic_release_lpi_locked() is called from two distinct paths: direct release via vgic_put_irq(), and deferred release via vgic_release_deleted_lpis(). During direct release, the issue can result in deleting a newly registered LPI from the xarray: CPU0 (Releasing LPI) CPU1 (Adding new LPI) ==================== ===================== vgic_put_irq() __vgic_put_irq() refcount_dec_and_test() vgic_add_lpi() xa_lock_irqsave() old_irq = xa_load(.., intid) vgic_try_get_irq_ref(old_irq) == false new IRQ inserted --> __xa_store(.., intid, ..) xa_unlock_irqrestore() xa_lock_irqsave(); vgic_release_lpi_locked() __xa_erase(.., irq->intid) <-- BUG: new IRQ is erased kfree_rcu(old_irq) During the deferred release path, the old IRQ can be leaked: CPU0 (Releasing LPI) CPU1 (Adding new LPI) ==================== ===================== vgic_put_irq_norelease() __vgic_put_irq() refcount_dec_and_test() irq->pending_release = true vgic_add_lpi() xa_lock_irqsave() old_irq = xa_load(.., intid) vgic_try_get_irq_ref(oldirq) == false BUG: old IRQ overwritten --> __xa_store(.., intid, ..) xa_unlock_irqrestore() vgic_release_deleted_lpis() xa_lock_irqsave() xa_for_each() { .. } <-- old IRQ with pending_release = true is gone, so it cannot be released To fix the direct release path, move the reference count drop inside the xarray lock, making sure that vgic_add_lpi() never encounters the to-be-released LPI. In the deferred release path, the refcount drop must happen under a raw spinlock, so the xarray lock cannot be grabbed, and the same solution does not work. Instead, update vgic_add_lpi(), so that if it evicts an LPI from the xarray, it takes on the responsibility of freeing it. Consequently, an LPI may now be freed concurrently after a deferred release drops the refcount, so accessing the pending_release field is no longer safe from use-after-free. Delete all uses of the flag, and update vgic_release_deleted_lpis() to identify orphaned LPIs purely based on their refcount.

Where it lives

The fix touches these files. If the subsystem is one you do not use, the practical exposure is lower, though the package is still the vulnerable one.

arch/arm64/kvm/vgic/vgic-its.c
arch/arm64/kvm/vgic/vgic.c
include/kvm/arm_vgic.h

What this is
KERNEL VIRTUAL MACHINE FOR ARM64 (KVM/arm64)MAINTAINERS section matched on arch/arm64/kvm/ · linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org · Maintained
Show whether Debian builds this, per release

Not established. This site could not find the build rule for the affected file in the kernel trees Debian ships, so it has no answer about whether Debian compiles this code. Read that as unknown, never as absent.

  • bookworm, trixie, forky, sid?
?
not established - no Makefile entry for the affected file

Where a release above reads "not established", no build rule for the affected file was found in that release's kernel tree. That is a gap in this lookup, not a finding that the code is absent.

From the configuration Debian publishes for every kernel flavour it builds. It covers only the architectures Debian ships a linux-config package for, and nothing about a kernel you built yourself. Debian's own status above stays authoritative about the source package.MAINTAINERS

Signals

Published
2026-08-15 (2 months ago)source
CVSS
9.3 critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:Hsource recompute it
Attack vector
local (AV:L)source
EPSS
0.19%, higher than 7.9% of all CVEssource
CISA KEV
not listedthe KEV catalogue
Debian urgency
unimportantsource
Subsystem
arch/arm64

Upstream fixes

The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source

IntroducedFixed inCommit
6.176.18.57f8e5715a3737
6.177.1.8292e80a159aa
6.177.2cbfe2b24a1ea

Why the CNA scored it this way

Quoted from the kernel CNA's own scoring file, word for word. A highlighted metric carries the most severe value CVSS v3.1 defines for it, which is what pushes the score up. source

AV:LAttack vector, local
The bug is reached when a malicious KVM guest writes emulated GICv3 ITS MMIO (GITS_CWRITER), processing DISCARD/MAPTI commands that call vgic_add_lpi() and vgic_put_irq(); this requires guest code execution on the host, not remote network input.
AC:LAttack complexity, low
The race is guest-driven and repeatable: a malicious guest can keep an LPI referenced on a vCPU ap_list, issue DISCARD, and concurrently re-map the same INTID via MAPTI across vCPUs, controlling both sides of the refcount/xarray race.
PR:NPrivileges required, none
Exploitation requires only code inside a KVM guest on an arm64 host with VGICv3 ITS/LPI (common on cloud ARM servers); no host root, CAP_SYS_ADMIN, or other elevated host privileges are needed beyond normal VM tenancy.
UI:NUser interaction, none
No victim interaction is required; the attacker fully controls guest ITS command submission, interrupt injection, and multi-vCPU timing from within the VM.
S:CScope, changed
Corrupting host-kernel VGIC LPI objects (lpi_xa entries, vgic_irq structures) from guest MMIO crosses the KVM virtual-machine security boundary and can enable guest-to-host escape.
C:HConfidentiality impact, high
The race can erase a newly registered LPI while freeing the old one, leaving stale host pointers (ite->irq, ap_list) to freed vgic_irq objects; this use-after-free enables arbitrary host kernel memory disclosure via heap reuse.
I:HIntegrity impact, high
Host heap corruption of vgic_irq structures and xarray state from the race provides use-after-free write primitives that can be leveraged for arbitrary host kernel modification and VM escape code execution.
A:HAvailability impact, high
The bug can cause host kernel crashes (oops/panic) from freeing live LPIs, orphaned IRQ state, and use-after-free during concurrent VGIC interrupt handling on multiple vCPUs.