Host crash via pre-init vCPU event ioctl
Published Oct 30, 2025 · Updated Oct 30, 2025
Denial of service in arm64 KVM in Linux 4.19 through 6.17.4 allows local users with KVM access to crash the host via a vCPU ioctl. KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS accepts pending events before KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT, so exception routing consumes uninitialized vCPU state and can set an illegal AArch64 mode. Access to the KVM vCPU ioctl interface is required; triggering the bad state reaches exception_target_el() and crashes the host kernel.
Summary
What happened
Denial of service in arm64 KVM in Linux 4.19 through 6.17.4 allows local users with KVM access to crash the host via a vCPU ioctl. KVM_SET_VCPU_EVENTS accepts pending events before KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT, so exception routing consumes uninitialized vCPU state and can set an illegal AArch64 mode. Access to the KVM vCPU ioctl interface is required; triggering the bad state reaches exception_target_el() and crashes the host kernel.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-40102
- Published
- Oct 30, 2025
- Updated
- Oct 30, 2025
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 30, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 30, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=4.19
- Affected versionversion=b7b27facc7b50a5fce0afaa3df56157136ce181a <0aa1b76fe1429629215a7c79820e4b96233ac4a3
- Affected versionversion=b7b27facc7b50a5fce0afaa3df56157136ce181a <64a04e6320fc5affbadc59dc7024d79f909bfe84
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What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Technologies
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Your stack
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