# CVE-2021-47092: KVM: VMX: Always clear vmx->fail on emulation_required

> A logic error in KVM VMX handling can trigger a kernel warning and potential instability during VM teardown, allowing local attackers to cause denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 4 Mar 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47092, GHSA-hg5r-659j-4p32, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-47092

## What is CVE-2021-47092?

CVE-2021-47092 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Mar 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

KVM: VMX: Always clear vmx->fail on emulation_required

Revert a relatively recent change that set vmx->fail if the vCPU is in L2
and emulation_required is true, as that behavior is completely bogus.
Setting vmx->fail and synthesizing a VM-Exit is contradictory and wrong:

  (a) it's impossible to have both a VM-Fail and VM-Exit
  (b) vmcs.EXIT_REASON is not modified on VM-Fail
  (c) emulation_required refers to guest state and guest state checks are
      always VM-Exits, not VM-Fails.

For KVM specifically, emulation_required is handled before nested exits
in __vmx_handle_exit(), thus setting vmx->fail has no immediate effect,
i.e. KVM calls into handle_invalid_guest_state() and vmx->fail is ignored.
Setting vmx->fail can ultimately result in a WARN in nested_vmx_vmexit()
firing when tearing down the VM as KVM never expects vmx->fail to be set
when L2 is active, KVM always reflects those errors into L1.

  ------------[ cut here ]------------
  WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 21158 at arch/x86/kvm/vmx/nested.c:4548
                                nested_vmx_vmexit+0x16bd/0x17e0
                                arch/x86/kvm/vmx/nested.c:4547
  Modules linked in:
  CPU: 0 PID: 21158 Comm: syz-executor.1 Not tainted 5.16.0-rc3-syzkaller #0
  Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 01/01/2011
  RIP: 0010:nested_vmx_vmexit+0x16bd/0x17e0 arch/x86/kvm/vmx/nested.c:4547
  Code: <0f> 0b e9 2e f8 ff ff e8 57 b3 5d 00 0f 0b e9 00 f1 ff ff 89 e9 80
  Call Trace:
   vmx_leave_nested arch/x86/kvm/vmx/nested.c:6220 [inline]
   nested_vmx_free_vcpu+0x83/0xc0 arch/x86/kvm/vmx/nested.c:330
   vmx_free_vcpu+0x11f/0x2a0 arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c:6799
   kvm_arch_vcpu_destroy+0x6b/0x240 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:10989
   kvm_vcpu_destroy+0x29/0x90 arch/x86/kvm/../../../virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:441
   kvm_free_vcpus arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:11426 [inline]
   kvm_arch_destroy_vm+0x3ef/0x6b0 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:11545
   kvm_destroy_vm arch/x86/kvm/../../../virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:1189 [inline]
   kvm_put_kvm+0x751/0xe40 arch/x86/kvm/../../../virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:1220
   kvm_vcpu_release+0x53/0x60 arch/x86/kvm/../../../virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:3489
   __fput+0x3fc/0x870 fs/file_table.c:280
   task_work_run+0x146/0x1c0 kernel/task_work.c:164
   exit_task_work include/linux/task_work.h:32 [inline]
   do_exit+0x705/0x24f0 kernel/exit.c:832
   do_group_exit+0x168/0x2d0 kernel/exit.c:929
   get_signal+0x1740/0x2120 kernel/signal.c:2852
   arch_do_signal_or_restart+0x9c/0x730 arch/x86/kernel/signal.c:868
   handle_signal_work kernel/entry/common.c:148 [inline]
   exit_to_user_mode_loop kernel/entry/common.c:172 [inline]
   exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0x191/0x220 kernel/entry/common.c:207
   __syscall_exit_to_user_mode_work kernel/entry/common.c:289 [inline]
   syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x2e/0x70 kernel/entry/common.c:300
   do_syscall_64+0x53/0xd0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:86
   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-47092?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-47092?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2021-47092 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47092 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-47092 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-47092 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Mar 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47092 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-47092/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-47092/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-47092
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-47092
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-47092

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-47092/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.