CVE-2025-40102

  • Published: 2025-10-30T10:15:34.603

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

KVM: arm64: Prevent access to vCPU events before init

Another day, another syzkaller bug. KVM erroneously allows userspace to
pend vCPU events for a vCPU that hasn’t been initialized yet, leading to
KVM interpreting a bunch of uninitialized garbage for routing /
injecting the exception.

In one case the injection code and the hyp disagree on whether the vCPU
has a 32bit EL1 and put the vCPU into an illegal mode for AArch64,
tripping the BUG() in exception_target_el() during the next injection:

kernel BUG at arch/arm64/kvm/inject_fault.c:40!
Internal error: Oops – BUG: 00000000f2000800 [#1] SMP
CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 318 Comm: repro Not tainted 6.17.0-rc4-00104-g10fd0285305d #6 PREEMPT
Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT)
pstate: 21402009 (nzCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO +DIT -SSBS BTYPE=–)
pc : exception_target_el+0x88/0x8c
lr : pend_serror_exception+0x18/0x13c
sp : ffff800082f03a10
x29: ffff800082f03a10 x28: ffff0000cb132280 x27: 0000000000000000
x26: 0000000000000000 x25: ffff0000c2a99c20 x24: 0000000000000000
x23: 0000000000008000 x22: 0000000000000002 x21: 0000000000000004
x20: 0000000000008000 x19: ffff0000c2a99c20 x18: 0000000000000000
x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: 00000000200000c0
x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 0000000000000000 x12: 0000000000000000
x11: 0000000000000000 x10: 0000000000000000 x9 : 0000000000000000
x8 : ffff800082f03af8 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 0000000000000000
x5 : ffff800080f621f0 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000000000
x2 : 000000000040009b x1 : 0000000000000003 x0 : ffff0000c2a99c20
Call trace:
exception_target_el+0x88/0x8c (P)
kvm_inject_serror_esr+0x40/0x3b4
__kvm_arm_vcpu_set_events+0xf0/0x100
kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl+0x180/0x9d4
kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x60c/0x9f4
__arm64_sys_ioctl+0xac/0x104
invoke_syscall+0x48/0x110
el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0x40/0xe0
do_el0_svc+0x1c/0x28
el0_svc+0x34/0xf0
el0t_64_sync_handler+0xa0/0xe4
el0t_64_sync+0x198/0x19c
Code: f946bc01 b4fffe61 9101e020 17fffff2 (d4210000)

Reject the ioctls outright as no sane VMM would call these before
KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT anyway. Even if it did the exception would’ve been
thrown away by the eventual reset of the vCPU’s state.

Related CVE by CWE

No related CWE found.

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Recently Exploited Similar Vulnerabilities

No recent KEV-listed items for this vendor/product.

How to fix CVE-2025-40102

CVE-2025-40102 is a unknown severity vulnerability affecting the affected product.

Description: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: arm64: Prevent access to vCPU events before init Another day, another syzkaller bug. KVM erroneously allows userspace to pend vCPU events for a vCPU that hasn’t been initialized yet, leading to KVM interpreting a bunch of uninitialized garbage for routing / injecting the exception. […]

Exploit Difficulty: HARD
⏱️ Time to exploit: > 4 hours
🛠️ Required skills: Advanced security expertise
💰 Public exploits: Rare or not public

How to Fix:

1 Identify affected systems

- Check if you're running the affected product

2 Immediate actions

- Update to the latest patched version
- If patching is not immediately possible: restrict network exposure, apply least-privilege access

3 Verification

- Test the fix in a staging environment first
- Review logs for signs of exploitation
- Monitor for IOCs (Indicators of Compromise)

4 Long-term prevention

- Enable automatic security updates
- Set up vulnerability monitoring
- Review and harden security configurations

Exploit Difficulty Assessment

HARD
⏱️ Time to Exploit: > 4 hours
🛠️ Skills Required: Advanced security expertise
💰 Public Exploits: Rare or not public

Vulnerability Timeline

Oct 30, 2025
Vulnerability Published

CVE details first published to NVD database

Nov 12, 2025
Imported to Database

Added to this CVE tracking system

Detection Rules & IOCs

No specific detection rules generated for this vulnerability type.

No vendor/product data available.