CVE-2024-53195 KVM: arm64: Get rid of userspace_irqchip_in_use

What is CVE-2024-53195?

CVE-2024-53195 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Dec 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: arm64: Get rid of userspace_irqchip_in_use

Improper use of userspace_irqchip_in_use led to syzbot hitting the following WARN_ON() in kvm_timer_update_irq():

WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 3281 at arch/arm64/kvm/arch_timer.c:459 kvm_timer_update_irq+0x21c/0x394 Call trace: kvm_timer_update_irq+0x21c/0x394 arch/arm64/kvm/arch_timer.c:459 kvm_timer_vcpu_reset+0x158/0x684 arch/arm64/kvm/arch_timer.c:968 kvm_reset_vcpu+0x3b4/0x560 arch/arm64/kvm/reset.c:264 kvm_vcpu_set_target arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c:1553 [inline] kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_vcpu_init arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c:1573 [inline] kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl+0x112c/0x1b3c arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c:1695 kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x4ec/0xf74 virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:4658 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline] __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:907 [inline] __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:893 [inline] __arm64_sys_ioctl+0x108/0x184 fs/ioctl.c:893 __invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:35 [inline] invoke_syscall+0x78/0x1b8 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:49 el0_svc_common+0xe8/0x1b0 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:132 do_el0_svc+0x40/0x50 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:151 el0_svc+0x54/0x14c arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:712 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x84/0xfc arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:730 el0t_64_sync+0x190/0x194 arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S:598

The following sequence led to the scenario: - Userspace creates a VM and a vCPU. - The vCPU is initialized with KVM_ARM_VCPU_PMU_V3 during KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT. - Without any other setup, such as vGIC or vPMU, userspace issues KVM_RUN on the vCPU. Since the vPMU is requested, but not setup, kvm_arm_pmu_v3_enable() fails in kvm_arch_vcpu_run_pid_change(). As a result, KVM_RUN returns after enabling the timer, but before incrementing 'userspace_irqchip_in_use': kvm_arch_vcpu_run_pid_change() ret = kvm_arm_pmu_v3_enable() if (!vcpu->arch.pmu.created) return -EINVAL; if (ret) return ret; [...] if (!irqchip_in_kernel(kvm)) static_branch_inc(&userspace_irqchip_in_use); - Userspace ignores the error and issues KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT again. Since the timer is already enabled, control moves through the following flow, ultimately hitting the WARN_ON(): kvm_timer_vcpu_reset() if (timer->enabled) kvm_timer_update_irq() if (!userspace_irqchip()) ret = kvm_vgic_inject_irq() ret = vgic_lazy_init() if (unlikely(!vgic_initialized(kvm))) if (kvm->arch.vgic.vgic_model != KVM_DEV_TYPE_ARM_VGIC_V2) return -EBUSY; WARN_ON(ret);

Theoretically, since userspace_irqchip_in_use's functionality can be simply replaced by '!irqchip_in_kernel()', get rid of the static key to avoid the mismanagement, which also helps with the syzbot issue.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-53195?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-53195?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2024-53195 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-53195 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 AZL-68303, BELL-CVE-2024-53195, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-53195, GHSA-6mv6-cjvx-gfvm, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2024-53195, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2024-53195 and 2 more.