CVE-2026-98471: KVM: SEV: Do cache maintenance on the source VM during intra-host migration

Published Oct 18, 2026
·
Updated

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

KVM: SEV: Do cache maintenance on the source VM during intra-host migration

Manually perform cache maintenance on the source VM during intra-host migration to ensure no stale data is left in CPU caches after the VM is destroyed. Because the source VM is "converted" to a non-SEV VM, KVM's memory reclaim flows won't trigger cache maintenance, e.g. when all guest memory is reclaimed in response to detaching from the mmunotifier.

Note, relying on the destination VM to do cache maintenance isn't an option as KVM doesn't require identical guest memory configurations, i.e. the source VM may have access to memory that the destination VM does not. Enforcing equivalent memory configurations is infeasible, as it would require a deep comparison of memslots, e.g. to verify that not only are the memslot identical, but what the memslots point at is also identical.

Affected Software

1 affected component
Linux Linux kernel

Remediation

Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.

  1. Operational

    During intra-host migration, manually perform cache maintenance on the source VM before it is converted to a non-SEV VM, so stale data is not left in CPU caches.

Event History

Oct 18, 2026
CVE Published
via MITRE·03:15 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·03:15 PM
Description
Data Sourced
via NVD·04:16 PM
Description

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