CVE-2026-72284 KVM: x86: Ignore pending PV EOI if the vCPU has since disabled PV EOIs
A guest VM can trigger a kernel panic in the Linux KVM module by manipulating PV EOI states, causing a denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-72284?
CVE-2026-72284 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 Aug 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: x86: Ignore pending PV EOI if the vCPU has since disabled PV EOIs
Ignore KVM's internal "service pending PV EOI" request if the vCPU has disabled PV EOIs since the request was made. Asserting that PV EOIs are enabled can fail if reading guest memory in pv_eoi_get_user() fails, i.e. if pv_eoi_test_and_clr_pending() bails early, *and* the vCPU also disables PV EOIs.
kernel BUG at arch/x86/kvm/lapic.c:3338! Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP CPU: 4 UID: 1000 PID: 890 Comm: pv_eoi_test Not tainted 7.0.0-d585aa5894d8-vm #337 PREEMPT Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015 RIP: 0010:kvm_lapic_sync_from_vapic+0x12b/0x140 [kvm] Call Trace: <TASK> kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x1075/0x1c30 [kvm] kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x2d5/0x980 [kvm] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x8a/0xd0 do_syscall_64+0xb5/0xb40 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 </TASK> Modules linked in: kvm_intel kvm irqbypass ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72284?
How do I fix CVE-2026-72284?
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-2026-72284 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72284 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-72284, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72284, GHSA-4wpm-cf5q-x355, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72284.