CVE-2021-47639 - CVE House
Back to Database
Status published Unknown CVE-2021-47639

KVM: x86/mmu: Zap _all_ roots when unmapping gfn range in TDP MMU

Vulnerability Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: x86/mmu: Zap _all_ roots when unmapping gfn range in TDP MMU Zap both valid and invalid roots when zapping/unmapping a gfn range, as KVM must ensure it holds no references to the freed page after returning from the unmap operation. Most notably, the TDP MMU doesn't zap invalid roots in mmu_notifier callbacks. This leads to use-after-free and other issues if the mmu_notifier runs to completion while an invalid root zapper yields as KVM fails to honor the requirement that there must be _no_ references to the page after the mmu_notifier returns. The bug is most easily reproduced by hacking KVM to cause a collision between set_nx_huge_pages() and kvm_mmu_notifier_release(), but the bug exists between kvm_mmu_notifier_invalidate_range_start() and memslot updates as well. Invalidating a root ensures pages aren't accessible by the guest, and KVM won't read or write page data itself, but KVM will trigger e.g. kvm_set_pfn_dirty() when zapping SPTEs, and thus completing a zap of an invalid root _after_ the mmu_notifier returns is fatal. WARNING: CPU: 24 PID: 1496 at arch/x86/kvm/../../../virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:173 [kvm] RIP: 0010:kvm_is_zone_device_pfn+0x96/0xa0 [kvm] Call Trace: <TASK> kvm_set_pfn_dirty+0xa8/0xe0 [kvm] __handle_changed_spte+0x2ab/0x5e0 [kvm] __handle_changed_spte+0x2ab/0x5e0 [kvm] __handle_changed_spte+0x2ab/0x5e0 [kvm] zap_gfn_range+0x1f3/0x310 [kvm] kvm_tdp_mmu_zap_invalidated_roots+0x50/0x90 [kvm] kvm_mmu_zap_all_fast+0x177/0x1a0 [kvm] set_nx_huge_pages+0xb4/0x190 [kvm] param_attr_store+0x70/0x100 module_attr_store+0x19/0x30 kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x119/0x1b0 new_sync_write+0x11c/0x1b0 vfs_write+0x1cc/0x270 ksys_write+0x5f/0xe0 do_syscall_64+0x38/0xc0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae </TASK>

Impact Analysis

Refer to official advisory for detailed impact metrics.

Remediation

Ensure systems are updated to the latest vendor-supplied patch levels.

THREAT MONITOR

Am I Vulnerable?

Launch our assessment wizard to check if your infrastructure is exposed to • CVE-2021-47639

Credits & Attribution

No credits recorded in the NVD database.

Affected Vendor

Affected Software

Linux
Vulnerable Versions:
b7cccd397f310739fb85383033e95580f99927e0, 5.13, 0, 5.15.33, 5.16.19, 5.17.2, 5.18

Timeline

Official Publish: February 26th, 2025
Last Modified: May 11th, 2026
Added to House: July 21st, 2026

CVSS Vectors

No vector data available

Weaknesses (CWE)

No CWE data available

MITRE ATT&CK TTPs

No associated TTPs found for this vulnerability.