CVE-2022-2196 Speculative execution attacks in KVM VMX

What is CVE-2022-2196?

CVE-2022-2196 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 9 Jan 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A regression exists in the Linux Kernel within KVM: nVMX that allowed for speculative execution attacks. L2 can carry out Spectre v2 attacks on L1 due to L1 thinking it doesn't need retpolines or IBPB after running L2 due to KVM (L0) advertising eIBRS support to L1. An attacker at L2 with code execution can execute code on an indirect branch on the host machine. We recommend upgrading to Kernel 6.2 or applying the relevant stable backports (v5.4.233, v5.10.170, v5.15.96, v6.1.14).

Weakness: CWE-1188

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-2196?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2022-2196?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

Is CVE-2022-2196 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-2196 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

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• CVE-2026-24061 GNU InetUtils Argument Injection Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2025-39682 Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2024-9680 Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free Exploited Critical 9.8

All Debian Debian Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

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

Also known as AZL-12951, DEBIAN-CVE-2022-2196, GHSA-r6c5-m6xc-3746, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-2196.