# CVE-2021-47230: KVM: x86: Immediately reset the MMU context when the SMM flag is cleared

> A NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel KVM module allows a local attacker to cause a system crash via improper MMU context handling during SMM exit.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.6 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 21 May 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47230, GHSA-j8hx-6rxw-p4r9, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-47230

## What is CVE-2021-47230?

CVE-2021-47230 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 May 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

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

KVM: x86: Immediately reset the MMU context when the SMM flag is cleared

Immediately reset the MMU context when the vCPU's SMM flag is cleared so
that the SMM flag in the MMU role is always synchronized with the vCPU's
flag.  If RSM fails (which isn't correctly emulated), KVM will bail
without calling post_leave_smm() and leave the MMU in a bad state.

The bad MMU role can lead to a NULL pointer dereference when grabbing a
shadow page's rmap for a page fault as the initial lookups for the gfn
will happen with the vCPU's SMM flag (=0), whereas the rmap lookup will
use the shadow page's SMM flag, which comes from the MMU (=1).  SMM has
an entirely different set of memslots, and so the initial lookup can find
a memslot (SMM=0) and then explode on the rmap memslot lookup (SMM=1).

  general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000000: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN
  KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007]
  CPU: 1 PID: 8410 Comm: syz-executor382 Not tainted 5.13.0-rc5-syzkaller #0
  Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 01/01/2011
  RIP: 0010:__gfn_to_rmap arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c:935 [inline]
  RIP: 0010:gfn_to_rmap+0x2b0/0x4d0 arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c:947
  Code: <42> 80 3c 20 00 74 08 4c 89 ff e8 f1 79 a9 00 4c 89 fb 4d 8b 37 44
  RSP: 0018:ffffc90000ffef98 EFLAGS: 00010246
  RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff888015b9f414 RCX: ffff888019669c40
  RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000001 RDI: 0000000000000001
  RBP: 0000000000000001 R08: ffffffff811d9cdb R09: ffffed10065a6002
  R10: ffffed10065a6002 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: dffffc0000000000
  R13: 0000000000000003 R14: 0000000000000001 R15: 0000000000000000
  FS:  000000000124b300(0000) GS:ffff8880b9b00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
  CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
  CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 0000000028e31000 CR4: 00000000001526e0
  DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
  DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
  Call Trace:
   rmap_add arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c:965 [inline]
   mmu_set_spte+0x862/0xe60 arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c:2604
   __direct_map arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c:2862 [inline]
   direct_page_fault+0x1f74/0x2b70 arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c:3769
   kvm_mmu_do_page_fault arch/x86/kvm/mmu.h:124 [inline]
   kvm_mmu_page_fault+0x199/0x1440 arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c:5065
   vmx_handle_exit+0x26/0x160 arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c:6122
   vcpu_enter_guest+0x3bdd/0x9630 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:9428
   vcpu_run+0x416/0xc20 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:9494
   kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x4e8/0xa40 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:9722
   kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x70f/0xbb0 arch/x86/kvm/../../../virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:3460
   vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline]
   __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:1069 [inline]
   __se_sys_ioctl+0xfb/0x170 fs/ioctl.c:1055
   do_syscall_64+0x3f/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:47
   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae
  RIP: 0033:0x440ce9

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-47230?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-47230?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2021-47230 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47230 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-2021-47230 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-47230 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 May 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47230 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-2021-47230/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-47230/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-47230
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-47230
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-47230

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-47230/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.