Memory Leak Affecting kernel-kvmsmall package, versions <6.12.0-160000.37.1


Severity

Recommended
0.0
medium
0
10

Based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.13% (3rd percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-SLES1600-KERNELKVMSMALL-19317054
  • published27 Aug 2026
  • disclosed11 Aug 2026

Introduced: 11 Aug 2026

NewCVE-2026-46147  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-401  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

Upgrade SLES:16.0.0 kernel-kvmsmall to version 6.12.0-160000.37.1 or higher.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream kernel-kvmsmall package and not the kernel-kvmsmall package as distributed by SLES. See How to fix? for SLES:16.0.0 relevant fixed versions and status.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

KVM: arm64: Fix pin leak and publication ordering in __pkvm_init_vcpu()

Two bugs exist in the vCPU initialisation path:

  1. If a check fails after hyp_pin_shared_mem() succeeds, the cleanup path jumps to 'unlock' without calling unpin_host_vcpu() or unpin_host_sve_state(), permanently leaking pin references on the host vCPU and SVE state pages.

    Extract a register_hyp_vcpu() helper that performs the checks and the store. When register_hyp_vcpu() returns an error, call unpin_host_vcpu() and unpin_host_sve_state() inline before falling through to the existing 'unlock' label.

  2. register_hyp_vcpu() publishes the new vCPU pointer into 'hyp_vm->vcpus[]' with a bare store, allowing a concurrent caller of pkvm_load_hyp_vcpu() to observe a partially initialised vCPU object.

    Ensure the store uses smp_store_release() and the load uses smp_load_acquire(). While 'vm_table_lock' currently serialises the store and the load, these barriers ensure the reader sees the fully initialised 'hyp_vcpu' object even if there were a lockless path or if the lock's own ordering guarantees were insufficient for nested object initialization.

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1