Nested guest interruption via stale NextRIP restoration
Published May 27, 2026 · Updated May 27, 2026
Improper state restoration in Linux Kernel 5.8 through 6.18.26 and 6.19 through 7.0.3 allows local users to interrupt nested guests. After an L2 VMRUN, arch/x86/kvm/svm/nested.c repopulates vmcb02 NextRIP from current RIP during save/restore even though the CPU or KVM has already updated NextRIP. Reachability requires a local KVM user running nested SVM with NRIPS disabled and an injected soft interrupt; the stale instruction pointer can interrupt L2 execution.
Summary
What happened
Improper state restoration in Linux Kernel 5.8 through 6.18.26 and 6.19 through 7.0.3 allows local users to interrupt nested guests. After an L2 VMRUN, arch/x86/kvm/svm/nested.c repopulates vmcb02 NextRIP from current RIP during save/restore even though the CPU or KVM has already updated NextRIP. Reachability requires a local KVM user running nested SVM with NRIPS disabled and an injected soft interrupt; the stale instruction pointer can interrupt L2 execution.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-46059
- Published
- May 27, 2026
- Updated
- May 27, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux Kernel
- Classifications
- T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 27, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 27, 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=5.8
- Affected versionversion=cc440cdad5b7a4c1de12dace725209eb3e0cf663 <3428ed1529a1af4cce5aff6c5bd2fcc39ad726bb
- Affected versionversion=cc440cdad5b7a4c1de12dace725209eb3e0cf663 <69fe1411a5ce678b4da6489b5d2282b4e1d13acf
- Affected versionversion=cc440cdad5b7a4c1de12dace725209eb3e0cf663 <8d397582f6b5e9fbcf09781c7c934b4910e94a50
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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