# CVE-2026-90040: KVM: SEV: Forcefully invalidate SNP VMSA if its backing gmem page is zapped
> A flaw in Linux KVM SEV-SNP handling allows denial of service when guest memory pages are invalidated without proper VMSA cleanup.
- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 16 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-90040, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-90040, GHSA-hj6j-g456-vf4m, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-90040
## What is CVE-2026-90040?
CVE-2026-90040 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Sep 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: Forcefully invalidate SNP VMSA if its backing gmem page is zapped
Wire up a gmem_invalidate_range() call for SNP VMs, and use it to force
vCPUs to reload/recheck their guest-provided VMSA if the backing gmem
page is being invalidated, e.g. is being PUNCH_HOLE'd. Use the same core
logic to handle invalidations as VMX does for the APIC-access page, as the
two concepts are nearly identical: shove the physical address of a page
into the vCPU's control structure:
1. Snapshot the invalidation sequence counter
2. Grab the pfn (from guest_memfd in this case)
3. Acquire mmu_lock for read
4. Re-request reload if retry is needed, otherwise commit the change.
Note, the re-request action in #4 is necessary as KVM's retry logic is
fuzzy, i.e. can get false positives. If the guest_memfd page has been
dropped, at some point a subsequent reload will fail to get a PFN from
guest_memfd, and KVM will fail KVM_RUN. If the retry was due to a false
positive, KVM will retry until there are no relevant MMU notifier events
(and will retry in the "outer" loop, i.e. will drop locks and resched as
needed).
Note #2! Take care to invalidate the VMSA when a relevant memslot is
DELETED or MOVED, as invalidations in response to PUNCH_HOLE are predicated
on memslot bindings (KVM doesn't know what GFN range(s) to invalidate
without a binding). And more importantly, the VMSA mapping requires a
memslot, i.e. must be invalidated if its memslots disappears, regardless of
the state of the underlying guest_memfd inode.
Failure to invalidate the vCPU's control.vmsa_pa (which is checked by
pre_sev_run()) can prevent KVM from properly freeing the page as firmware
will reject the RMPUPDATE to reclaim the page with FAIL_INUSE if the vCPU
is actively running, i.e. if VMSA page is in-use. That in turn leads to an
RMP #PF on the next use, as the page will still be assigned to the SNP VM.
SEV-SNP: RMPUPDATE failed for PFN 78d198, pg_level: 1, ret: 3
SEV-SNP: PFN 0x78d198, RMP entry: [0xfff0000000144001 - 0x000000000000000f]
CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 31345 Comm: sev_snp_vmsa_pu Tainted: G U O
Tainted: [U]=USER, [O]=OOT_MODULE
Hardware name: Google, Inc. Arcadia_IT_80/Arcadia_IT_80, BIOS 34.86.0-102 01/25/2026
Call Trace:
dump_stack_lvl+0x54/0x70
rmpupdate+0x12c/0x140
rmp_make_shared+0x3b/0x60
sev_gmem_invalidate+0xe0/0x170 [kvm_amd]
delete_from_page_cache_batch+0x1d8/0x220
truncate_inode_pages_range+0x120/0x3d0
kvm_gmem_fallocate+0x19a/0x270 [kvm]
vfs_fallocate+0x1bc/0x1f0
__x64_sys_fallocate+0x48/0x70
do_syscall_64+0x10a/0x480
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53
RIP: 0033:0x496c7e
------------[ cut here ]------------
SEV: Failed to update RMP entry for PFN 0x78d198 error -14
WARNING: arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c:5160 at sev_gmem_invalidate+0x126/0x170 [kvm_amd], CPU#3: sev_snp_vmsa_pu/31345
CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 31345 Comm: sev_snp_vmsa_pu Tainted: G U O
Tainted: [U]=USER, [O]=OOT_MODULE
Hardware name: Google, Inc. Arcadia_IT_80/Arcadia_IT_80, BIOS 34.86.0-102 01/25/2026
RIP: 0010:sev_gmem_invalidate+0x12b/0x170 [kvm_amd]
Call Trace:
delete_from_page_cache_batch+0x1d8/0x220
truncate_inode_pages_range+0x120/0x3d0
kvm_gmem_fallocate+0x19a/0x270 [kvm]
vfs_fallocate+0x1bc/0x1f0
__x64_sys_fallocate+0x48/0x70
do_syscall_64+0x10a/0x480
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53
RIP: 0033:0x496c7e
irq event stamp: 20689
hardirqs last enabled at (20699): [] __console_unlock+0x5c/0x60
hardirqs last disabled at (20708): [] __console_unlock+0x41/0x60
softirqs last enabled at (20722): [] __irq_exit_rcu+0x7e/0x140
softirqs last disabled at (20717): [] __irq_exit_rcu+0x7e/0x140
---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffff99
---truncated---
## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-90040?
## How do I fix CVE-2026-90040?
Apply the vendor's patch.
## Is CVE-2026-90040 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-90040 in the wild and no public exploit code.
## Fix prompt for AI coding agents
```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-90040 and fix it if it is affected.
What it is: CVE-2026-90040 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Sep 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-2026-90040 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Affected product: Linux. 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-2026-90040/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-90040/index.md)
```
## Sources
- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-90040
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-90040
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-90040
---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-90040/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.