CVE-2025-38351: KVM: x86/hyper-v: Skip non-canonical addresses during PV TLB flush

Published Jul 19, 2025
·
Updated

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

KVM: x86/hyper-v: Skip non-canonical addresses during PV TLB flush

In KVM guests with Hyper-V hypercalls enabled, the hypercalls HVCALLFLUSHVIRTUALADDRESSLIST and HVCALLFLUSHVIRTUALADDRESSLISTEX allow a guest to request invalidation of portions of a virtual TLB. For this, the hypercall parameter includes a list of GVAs that are supposed to be invalidated.

However, when non-canonical GVAs are passed, there is currently no filtering in place and they are eventually passed to checked invocations of INVVPID on Intel / INVLPGA on AMD. While AMD's INVLPGA silently ignores non-canonical addresses (effectively a no-op), Intel's INVVPID explicitly signals VM-Fail and ultimately triggers the WARNONCE in invvpiderror():

invvpid failed: ext=0x0 vpid=1 gva=0xaaaaaaaaaaaaa000 WARNING: CPU: 6 PID: 326 at arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c:482 invvpiderror+0x91/0xa0 [kvmintel] Modules linked in: kvmintel kvm 9pnetvirtio irqbypass fuse CPU: 6 UID: 0 PID: 326 Comm: kvm-vm Not tainted 6.15.0 #14 PREEMPT(voluntary) RIP: 0010:invvpiderror+0x91/0xa0 [kvmintel] Call Trace: vmxflushtlbgva+0x320/0x490 [kvmintel] kvmhvvcpuflushtlb+0x24f/0x4f0 [kvm] kvmarchvcpuioctlrun+0x3013/0x5810 [kvm]

Hyper-V documents that invalid GVAs (those that are beyond a partition's GVA space) are to be ignored. While not completely clear whether this ruling also applies to non-canonical GVAs, it is likely fine to make that assumption, and manual testing on Azure confirms "real" Hyper-V interprets the specification in the same way.

Skip non-canonical GVAs when processing the list of address to avoid tripping the INVVPID failure. Alternatively, KVM could filter out "bad" GVAs before inserting into the FIFO, but practically speaking the only downside of pushing validation to the final processing is that doing so is suboptimal for the guest, and no well-behaved guest will request TLB flushes for non-canonical addresses.

Affected Software

10 affected componentsFixes available
Linux Linux kernel>9pnet_virti
Linux Linux kernel>=6.2<6.6.103
Linux Linux kernel>=6.7<6.12.41
Linux Linux kernel>=6.13<6.15.7
Linux Linux kernel=6.16-rc1
Linux Linux kernel=6.16-rc2
Linux Linux kernel=6.16-rc3
Linux Linux kernel=6.16-rc4
Linux Linux kernel=6.16-rc5
debian/linux
6.1.176-16.1.190-16.12.107-16.12.113-17.2.12-17.2.13-1

Remediation

Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.

  1. Upgrade

    Upgrade debian/linux to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in 6.1.176-1Fixed in 6.1.190-1Fixed in 6.12.107-1Fixed in 6.12.113-1Fixed in 7.2.12-1Fixed in 7.2.13-1
  2. Compensating control

    In KVM's Hyper-V PV TLB flush handling, filter out or skip non-canonical guest virtual addresses (GVAs) before processing the invalidation list or inserting addresses into the FIFO, preventing them from being passed to INVVPID or INVLPGA.

Event History

Jul 19, 2025
CVE Published
via MITRE·11:59 AM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·11:59 AM
Description
Data Sourced
via NVD·12:15 PM
RemedyDescriptionSeverityAffected Software
Data Sourced
via Red Hat·01:01 PM
DescriptionSeverityAffected Software

Parent advisories

This vulnerability appears in the following advisories.

Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of CVE-2025-38351?

CVE-2025-38351 is classified as a medium severity vulnerability.

2

How do I fix CVE-2025-38351?

To fix CVE-2025-38351, update your Linux kernel to the latest version that addresses this vulnerability.

3

What types of systems are affected by CVE-2025-38351?

CVE-2025-38351 affects KVM guests running on Linux kernels with Hyper-V hypercalls enabled.

4

What does CVE-2025-38351 exploit?

CVE-2025-38351 exploits the handling of non-canonical addresses during PV TLB flush in KVM.

5

When was CVE-2025-38351 disclosed?

CVE-2025-38351 was disclosed with a resolution in a Linux kernel update, but the specific disclosure date isn't provided.

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