CVE-2026-31593 KVM: SEV: Reject attempts to sync VMSA of an already-launched/encrypted vCPU
A local attacker can crash the host kernel by triggering an RMP violation when syncing VMSA of an already-launched SEV-SNP vCPU.
- 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
What is CVE-2026-31593?
CVE-2026-31593 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 Apr 2026. 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: SEV: Reject attempts to sync VMSA of an already-launched/encrypted vCPU
Reject synchronizing vCPU state to its associated VMSA if the vCPU has already been launched, i.e. if the VMSA has already been encrypted. On a host with SNP enabled, accessing guest-private memory generates an RMP #PF and panics the host.
BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ff1276cbfdf36000 #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x80000003) - RMP violation PGD 5a31801067 P4D 5a31802067 PUD 40ccfb5063 PMD 40e5954063 PTE 80000040fdf36163 SEV-SNP: PFN 0x40fdf36, RMP entry: [0x6010fffffffff001 - 0x000000000000001f] Oops: Oops: 0003 [#1] SMP NOPTI CPU: 33 UID: 0 PID: 996180 Comm: qemu-system-x86 Tainted: G OE Tainted: [O]=OOT_MODULE, [E]=UNSIGNED_MODULE Hardware name: Dell Inc. PowerEdge R7625/0H1TJT, BIOS 1.5.8 07/21/2023 RIP: 0010:sev_es_sync_vmsa+0x54/0x4c0 [kvm_amd] Call Trace: <TASK> snp_launch_update_vmsa+0x19d/0x290 [kvm_amd] snp_launch_finish+0xb6/0x380 [kvm_amd] sev_mem_enc_ioctl+0x14e/0x720 [kvm_amd] kvm_arch_vm_ioctl+0x837/0xcf0 [kvm] kvm_vm_ioctl+0x3fd/0xcc0 [kvm] __x64_sys_ioctl+0xa3/0x100 x64_sys_call+0xfe0/0x2350 do_syscall_64+0x81/0x10f0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e RIP: 0033:0x7ffff673287d </TASK>
Note, the KVM flaw has been present since commit ad73109ae7ec ("KVM: SVM: Provide support to launch and run an SEV-ES guest"), but has only been actively dangerous for the host since SNP support was added. With SEV-ES, KVM would "just" clobber guest state, which is totally fine from a host kernel perspective since userspace can clobber guest state any time before sev_launch_update_vmsa().
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-31593?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2026-31593?
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-2026-31593 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-31593 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as AZL-83648, BELL-CVE-2026-31593, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-31593, GHSA-jp87-j2ph-wv29, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-31593, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-31593 and 2 more.