CVE-2021-47094 json
KVM: x86/mmu: Don't advance iterator after restart due to yielding
published 2024-03-04 2 y ago modified 2026-08-05 3 mo ago also EUVD-2021-33742
- cvss
- 7.8
- version 3.1, CNA
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 0.2%
- EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 12%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
KVM: x86/mmu: Don't advance iterator after restart due to yielding
After dropping mmu_lock in the TDP MMU, restart the iterator during tdp_iter_next() and do not advance the iterator. Advancing the iterator results in skipping the top-level SPTE and all its children, which is fatal if any of the skipped SPTEs were not visited before yielding.
When zapping all SPTEs, i.e. when min_level == root_level, restarting the iter and then invoking tdp_iter_next() is always fatal if the current gfn has as a valid SPTE, as advancing the iterator results in try_step_side() skipping the current gfn, which wasn't visited before yielding.
Sprinkle WARNs on iter->yielded being true in various helpers that are often used in conjunction with yielding, and tag the helper with __must_check to reduce the probabily of improper usage.
Failing to zap a top-level SPTE manifests in one of two ways. If a valid SPTE is skipped by both kvm_tdp_mmu_zap_all() and kvm_tdp_mmu_put_root(), the shadow page will be leaked and KVM will WARN accordingly.
WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 3509 at arch/x86/kvm/mmu/tdp_mmu.c:46 [kvm] RIP: 0010:kvm_mmu_uninit_tdp_mmu+0x3e/0x50 [kvm] Call Trace: <TASK> kvm_arch_destroy_vm+0x130/0x1b0 [kvm] kvm_destroy_vm+0x162/0x2a0 [kvm] kvm_vcpu_release+0x34/0x60 [kvm] __fput+0x82/0x240 task_work_run+0x5c/0x90 do_exit+0x364/0xa10 ? futex_unqueue+0x38/0x60 do_group_exit+0x33/0xa0 get_signal+0x155/0x850 arch_do_signal_or_restart+0xed/0x750 exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0xc5/0x120 syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x1d/0x40 do_syscall_64+0x48/0xc0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae
If kvm_tdp_mmu_zap_all() skips a gfn/SPTE but that SPTE is then zapped by kvm_tdp_mmu_put_root(), KVM triggers a use-after-free in the form of marking a struct page as dirty/accessed after it has been put back on the free list. This directly triggers a WARN due to encountering a page with page_count() == 0, but it can also lead to data corruption and additional errors in the kernel.
WARNING: CPU: 7 PID: 1995658 at arch/x86/kvm/../../../virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:171 RIP: 0010:kvm_is_zone_device_pfn.part.0+0x9e/0xd0 [kvm] Call Trace: <TASK> kvm_set_pfn_dirty+0x120/0x1d0 [kvm] __handle_changed_spte+0x92e/0xca0 [kvm] __handle_changed_spte+0x63c/0xca0 [kvm] __handle_changed_spte+0x63c/0xca0 [kvm] __handle_changed_spte+0x63c/0xca0 [kvm] zap_gfn_range+0x549/0x620 [kvm] kvm_tdp_mmu_put_root+0x1b6/0x270 [kvm] mmu_free_root_page+0x219/0x2c0 [kvm] kvm_mmu_free_roots+0x1b4/0x4e0 [kvm] kvm_mmu_unload+0x1c/0xa0 [kvm] kvm_arch_destroy_vm+0x1f2/0x5c0 [kvm] kvm_put_kvm+0x3b1/0x8b0 [kvm] kvm_vcpu_release+0x4e/0x70 [kvm] __fput+0x1f7/0x8c0 task_work_run+0xf8/0x1a0 do_exit+0x97b/0x2230 do_group_exit+0xda/0x2a0 get_signal+0x3be/0x1e50 arch_do_signal_or_restart+0x244/0x17f0 exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0xcb/0x120 syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x1d/0x40 do_syscall_64+0x4d/0x90 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae
Note, the underlying bug existed even before commit 1af4a96025b3 ("KVM: x86/mmu: Yield in TDU MMU iter even if no SPTES changed") moved calls to tdp_mmu_iter_cond_resched() to the beginning of loops, as KVM could still incorrectly advance past a top-level entry when yielding on a lower-level entry. But with respect to leaking shadow pages, the bug was introduced by yielding before processing the current gfn.
Alternatively, tdp_mmu_iter_cond_resched() could simply fall through, or callers could jump to their "retry" label. The downside of that approach is that tdp_mmu_iter_cond_resched() _must_ be called before anything else in the loop, and there's no easy way to enfornce that requirement.
Ideally, KVM would handling the cond_resched() fully within the iterator macro (the code is actually quite clean) and avoid this entire class of bugs, but that is extremely difficult do wh ---truncated---
Patch / fix
- Linux Linux 5.15.12, 5.16
- linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.15.15-1
debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47094
- kernel-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.33.48.1
- kernel-syms-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.33.48.1
- kernel-source-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.33.48.1
- dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.59.1
- kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.59.1
- kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.59.1
- kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.59.1
- kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP5, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.59.1
suse advisories SUSE-SU-2024:1490-1SUSE-SU-2024:1480-1SUSE-SU-2024:1466-1SUSE-SU-2024:1321-1SUSE-SU-2024:1320-1
Vendor advisories
What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.
red hat product security vex CVE-2021-47094 updated cvss 7.1
kernel: KVM: x86/mmu: Don't advance iterator after restart due to yielding
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 moreaffected: no fix available
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 morenot affected: vulnerable code not present
Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf
CISA SSVC
- Exploitation
- none
- Automatable
- no
- Technical impact
- partial
- Assessed
- 2 y ago
Exploit prediction
0.22% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 12% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).
CVSS scores
| assigned by | version | score | vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | 3.1 | 7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| CISA ADP | 3.1 | 7.1 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H |
| CNA | 3.1 | 7.1 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H |
Affected products
- Linux Linux
Classification
- Technology feeds
References
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2021-47094
- NVD CVE-2021-47094
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