CVE-2026-72287 KVM: nVMX: Move vTPR vs. TPR Threshold consistency check into "normal" checks
A flaw in KVM's nested virtualization allows a guest to control CR3, potentially leading to privilege escalation or code execution in the host.
- 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-2026-72287?
CVE-2026-72287 is a high-severity 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: nVMX: Move vTPR vs. TPR Threshold consistency check into "normal" checks
Move the off-by-default consistency check for vmcs12.tpr_threshold vs. the virtual APIC vTPR into the "normal" controls checks, as waiting until KVM has loaded some amount of state is unnecessary and actively dangerous. Specifically, failure to unwind vmcs01.GUEST_CR3 to KVM's value when EPT is disabled results in KVM running L1 with an L1-controlled CR3, not with KVM's CR3!
Alternatively, KVM could simply reset the MMU to force a reload of vmcs01.GUEST_CR3, but the _only_ reason the check was shoved into a "late" flow was to wait until the vmcs12 pages were retrieved. Rather than build up more crusty code, simply access vTPR using a regular guest memory access (performance isn't a concern). To circumvent the restrictions that led to KVM deferring nested_get_vmcs12_pages(), (a) use a VM-scoped API to read guest memory so that it always hits non-SMM memslots (for RSM), and (b) skip the check (since its off-by-default anyways) when the vCPU doesn't want to run, i.e. when userspace is restoring/stuffing state.
If reading guest memory fails, simply skip the consistency check, as KVM's de facto ABI is that VMX instruction accesses to non-existent memory get PCI Bus Error semantics, where reads return 0xFFs. And if vTPR=0xFF, then the vTPR is guaranteed to be greater than or equal to TPR_THRESHOLD.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72287?
How do I fix CVE-2026-72287?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-72287 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72287 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72287, GHSA-2q48-vx2q-99r7, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72287.