KVM Nested VM: MMU Pointer Reset Failure Causes NULL Deref in Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-99176 Published on October 28, 2026
KVM: nVMX: Reset MMU back to the root MMU if loading L2 state fails for !VM-Entry
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
KVM: nVMX: Reset MMU back to the root MMU if loading L2 state fails for !VM-Entry
Reset the vCPU's MMU pointer back to the root MMU if loading L2 state fails
in the "not from VM-Entry" case, i.e. when emulating RSM or handling
KVM_SET_NESTED_STATE. Failure to unwind the MMU pointer results in KVM
trying to run L1 with a nested MMU, and is especially problematic if the
vCPU manages to free its nested state before the VM crashes. Constructing
the root for a nested EPT MMU goes through vmcs12, which is dynamically
allocated/freed when nVMX is enabled/disabled. And so if the nested state
is freed with the MMU still pointing at the nested MMU, KVM will hit a NULL
pointer deref when attempting to get L1=>L2 EPTP.
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000078
#PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
#PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
PGD 114a2d067 P4D 111743067 PUD 11141f067 PMD 0
Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP
CPU: 20 UID: 1000 PID: 1272 Comm: nested_tdp_faul Not tainted 7.3.0-rc4-8c89f11d1a99b-sink-vm #1914 PREEMPTLAZY
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015
RIP: 0010:nested_ept_get_eptp+0xb/0x10 [kvm_intel]
Call Trace:
<TASK>
kvm_mmu_load+0xcd/0x870 [kvm]
kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x18f5/0x1f80 [kvm]
kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x2c7/0x970 [kvm]
__x64_sys_ioctl+0x90/0xd0
do_syscall_64+0x9c/0x4d0
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53
RIP: 0033:0x47491b
</TASK>
Modules linked in: kvm_intel kvm irqbypass
CR2: 0000000000000078
---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
RIP: 0010:nested_ept_get_eptp+0xb/0x10 [kvm_intel]
[sean: write changelog]
Products Associated with CVE-2026-99176
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Affected Versions
Linux:- Version 72e9cbdb43384ceacc49e2fb6b8c8fb7c5988778 and below d00d5f534a8238674755e59826a6c7d3c8efb870 is affected.
- Version 72e9cbdb43384ceacc49e2fb6b8c8fb7c5988778 and below c9716f956216eb74ab0aad7f633586edd49e0322 is affected.
- Version 72e9cbdb43384ceacc49e2fb6b8c8fb7c5988778 and below c8f4cfe1cf93bce924e27f2abead7a4c4a487505 is affected.
- Version 4.15 is affected.
- Before 4.15 is unaffected.
- Version 6.18.59, <= 6.18.* is unaffected.
- Version 7.2.13, <= 7.2.* is unaffected.
- Version 7.3, <= * is unaffected.