# CVE-2026-45987: KVM: nSVM: Sync interrupt shadow to cached vmcb12 after VMRUN of L2

> A missing state synchronization in KVM nested virtualization can cause a guest virtual CPU to hang, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 27 May 2026
- **Updated:** 14 Jun 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-88544, BELL-CVE-2026-45987, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-45987, GHSA-x4f8-qj9g-g99w, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-45987, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-45987, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-45987, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-45987, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-45987

## What is CVE-2026-45987?

CVE-2026-45987 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 May 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: nSVM: Sync interrupt shadow to cached vmcb12 after VMRUN of L2

After VMRUN in guest mode, nested_sync_control_from_vmcb02() syncs
fields written by the CPU from vmcb02 to the cached vmcb12. This is
because the cached vmcb12 is used as the authoritative copy of some of
the controls, and is the payload when saving/restoring nested state.

int_state is also written by the CPU, specifically bit 0 (i.e.
SVM_INTERRUPT_SHADOW_MASK) for nested VMs, but it is not sync'd to
cached vmcb12. This does not cause a problem if KVM_SET_NESTED_STATE
preceeds KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS in the restore path, as an interrupt shadow
would be correctly restored to vmcb02 (KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS overwrites
what KVM_SET_NESTED_STATE restored in int_state).

However, if KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS preceeds KVM_SET_NESTED_STATE, an
interrupt shadow would be restored into vmcb01 instead of vmcb02. This
would mostly be benign for L1 (delays an interrupt), but not for L2. For
L2, the vCPU could hang (e.g. if a wakeup interrupt is delivered before
a HLT that should have been in an interrupt shadow).

Sync int_state to the cached vmcb12 in nested_sync_control_from_vmcb02()
to avoid this problem. With that, KVM_SET_NESTED_STATE restores the
correct interrupt shadow state, and if KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS follows it
would overwrite it with the same value.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-45987?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-45987?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-45987 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-45987 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-2026-45987 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-45987 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 May 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-45987 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-2026-45987/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-45987/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-45987
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-45987
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-45987

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-45987/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.