Host crash via stale PMU snapshot clearing
Published Oct 21, 2024 · Updated May 11, 2026
NULL pointer dereference in RISC-V KVM in Linux 6.10 through 6.11.1 allows local users to crash the host during guest teardown. kvm_pmu_clear_snapshot_area() attempts to zero a former guest PMU snapshot area after the guest has reclaimed that memory, causing kvm_vcpu_write_guest() to dereference an invalid address. Reachability requires RISC-V KVM with SBI PMU snapshot enabled and a forcefully powered-off guest; the demonstrated consequence is a host kernel crash.
Summary
What happened
NULL pointer dereference in RISC-V KVM in Linux 6.10 through 6.11.1 allows local users to crash the host during guest teardown. kvm_pmu_clear_snapshot_area() attempts to zero a former guest PMU snapshot area after the guest has reclaimed that memory, causing kvm_vcpu_write_guest() to dereference an invalid address. Reachability requires RISC-V KVM with SBI PMU snapshot enabled and a forcefully powered-off guest; the demonstrated consequence is a host kernel crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-47717
- Published
- Oct 21, 2024
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-476, T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 21, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 11, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=6.10
- Affected versionversion=c2f41ddbcdd75689d9f512638a40263e3127be93 <47d40d93292d9cff8dabb735bed83d930fa03950
- Affected versionversion=c2f41ddbcdd75689d9f512638a40263e3127be93 <6d0a5dcfc78bd18f2abb9641f83380135494559b
- Affected versionversion=c2f41ddbcdd75689d9f512638a40263e3127be93 <81aa95fd5bd14ff49617f07fa79a8d1f1cf2ce9a
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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