CVE-2021-47255 kvm: LAPIC: Restore guard to prevent illegal APIC register access

What is CVE-2021-47255?

CVE-2021-47255 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 May 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: LAPIC: Restore guard to prevent illegal APIC register access

Per the SDM, "any access that touches bytes 4 through 15 of an APIC register may cause undefined behavior and must not be executed." Worse, such an access in kvm_lapic_reg_read can result in a leak of kernel stack contents. Prior to commit 01402cf81051 ("kvm: LAPIC: write down valid APIC registers"), such an access was explicitly disallowed. Restore the guard that was removed in that commit.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-47255?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2021-47255?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2021-47255 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47255 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47255, GHSA-wgwm-v825-xmjx, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-47255.