UBUNTU-CVE-2026-80895: Medium severity ubuntu/linux-hwe-edge vulnerability
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mshv: Order ptvparray publish against irqfd assertion path mshvpartitionioctlcreatevp() initialises a VP struct (allocations, mutexinit, initwaitqueuehead, page mappings) and then publishes the pointer into partition->ptvparray. Several ISR paths read this array locklessly: the intercept ISR, the two scheduler ISRs, and mshvtryassertirqfast() on the irqfd fast path. Of these, only mshvtryassertirqfast() can structurally race the publish. It runs from an eventfd waker without holding ptmutex, and MSHVIRQFD does not require the target lapicapicid (== vpindex) to refer to an existing VP at registration time. A user can therefore register an irqfd targeting a yet-to-be-created VP, then trigger mshvtryassertirqfast() concurrently with MSHVCREATEVP for the same index. On weakly-ordered architectures the reader can observe a non-NULL pointer in ptvparray before the initialising stores to the VP struct become visible, leading to use of partially-initialised fields (e.g. vpregisterpage). The other ISR readers cannot reach this race: the hypervisor will not generate intercept or scheduler messages for a VP that has never been told to run, and the user can only call MSHVRUNVP on the VP fd returned by MSHVCREATEVP, which by construction is returned after the publish. Leave those readers as plain loads. Use smpstorerelease() in mshvpartitionioctlcreatevp() to publish the pointer, and pair it with smploadacquire() in mshvtryassertirqfast(). On x86 these compile to plain accesses under TSO; on ARM64 they emit one-instruction acquire/release barriers, acceptable on this fast path. The destroy-side path (destroypartition() clearing ptvparray[i] to NULL after kfree(vp)) has a separate ordering and lifetime concern that is out of scope here.
Affected Software
Remediation
Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.
- Upgrade
Upgrade
ubuntu/linux-hwe-7.0to a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 7.0.0-42.42~24.04.1 - Upgrade
Upgrade
ubuntu/linux-riscv-7.0to a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 7.0.0-42.42.1~24.04.1 - Upgrade
Upgrade
ubuntu/linuxto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 7.0.0-42.42 - Upgrade
Upgrade
ubuntu/linux-awsto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 7.0.0-1016.17 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-gcpto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 7.0.0-1016.18 - Upgrade
Upgrade
ubuntu/linux-ibmto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 7.0.0-1017.17 - Upgrade
Upgrade
ubuntu/linux-oem-7.0to a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 7.0.0-1017.17 - Upgrade
Upgrade
ubuntu/linux-oracleto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 7.0.0-1015.16 - Upgrade
Upgrade
ubuntu/linux-riscvto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 7.0.0-42.42.1 - Compensating control
In the Linux kernel MSHV code, publish the VP pointer with smp_store_release() in mshv_partition_ioctl_create_vp() and pair it with smp_load_acquire() in mshv_try_assert_irq_fast().
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
Which systems are most likely to be exposed?
The issue applies to the listed Ubuntu Linux kernel packages when the MSHV interface is in use. The vulnerable race involves MSHV IRQFD registrations and virtual-processor creation, and is relevant on weakly ordered architectures.
What does an attacker need to do to trigger the race?
A user must be able to register an MSHV IRQFD targeting a VP index that does not yet exist, then trigger the IRQFD fast path concurrently with creation of a VP at that same index. The registration does not require the target lapic_apic_id, which equals the VP index, to refer to an existing VP.
What can be done before an update is available?
Avoid allowing IRQFD registrations that target VPs which have not yet been created, and avoid concurrent IRQFD triggering and MSHV_CREATE_VP operations for the same VP index. This removes the structural race described for mshv_try_assert_irq_fast().