CVE-2026-23425 Affecting kernel-source package, versions <6.12.0-160000.28.1


Severity

Recommended
0.0
medium
0
10

Based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.01% (4th percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-SLES1600-KERNELSOURCE-16333541
  • published1 May 2026
  • disclosed20 Apr 2026

Introduced: 20 Apr 2026

NewCVE-2026-23425  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

Upgrade SLES:16.0.0 kernel-source to version 6.12.0-160000.28.1 or higher.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream kernel-source package and not the kernel-source 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 ID register initialization for non-protected pKVM guests

In protected mode, the hypervisor maintains a separate instance of the kvm structure for each VM. For non-protected VMs, this structure is initialized from the host's kvm state.

Currently, pkvm_init_features_from_host() copies the KVM_ARCH_FLAG_ID_REGS_INITIALIZED flag from the host without the underlying id_regs data being initialized. This results in the hypervisor seeing the flag as set while the ID registers remain zeroed.

Consequently, kvm_has_feat() checks at EL2 fail (return 0) for non-protected VMs. This breaks logic that relies on feature detection, such as ctxt_has_tcrx() for TCR2_EL1 support. As a result, certain system registers (e.g., TCR2_EL1, PIR_EL1, POR_EL1) are not saved/restored during the world switch, which could lead to state corruption.

Fix this by explicitly copying the ID registers from the host kvm to the hypervisor kvm for non-protected VMs during initialization, since we trust the host with its non-protected guests' features. Also ensure KVM_ARCH_FLAG_ID_REGS_INITIALIZED is cleared initially in pkvm_init_features_from_host so that vm_copy_id_regs can properly initialize them and set the flag once done.

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1