published September 16, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
KVM: arm64: Handle VNCR TLB invalidation race with vcpu_put() VNCR unmapping
While VNCR TLB invalidation always occurs under the MMU lock,
vcpu_put() doesn't, while it unmaps the VNCR page.
The problem is that the invalidation evaluates vncr_tlb::cpu to
decide whether an unmapping needs to take place (cpu != -1) before
performing it. On the other hand, this_cpu_reset_vncr_fixmap()
unconditionally unmaps if L1_VNCR_MAPPED is set.
These two obviously can race, with a TOCTOU pattern on the TLBI
path, and a BUG_ON() on the vcpu_put() path. And the two can end-up
calling vncr_fixmap(-1), with extra lethal effects.
Move the reset of vncr_tlb::cpu to -1 to a common function, and make
this update atomic so that only a single thread can reset the field
and perform the corresponding unmap. The vcpu_put() still need to
unconditionally unmap the current VNCR to close another ugly race.
Finally, the assignment of vncr_tlb::cpu is moved to be kept in sync
with the actual mapping, similar to L1_VNCR_MAPPED being set.