CVE-2026-45944

Status: UPDATED  |  Advisory ID: CVE-2026-45944

Key Details

Affected Products, Subsystems & Sectors

What to Know

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

iommu/vt-d: Clear Present bit before tearing down context entry

When tearing down a context entry, the current implementation zeros the

entire 128-bit entry using multiple 64-bit writes. This creates a window

where the hardware can fetch a "torn" entry — where some fields are

already zeroed while the 'Present' bit is still set — leading to

unpredictable behavior or spurious faults.

While x86 provides strong write ordering, the compiler may reorder writes

to the two 64-bit halves of the context entry. Even without compiler

reordering, the hardware fetch is not guaranteed to be atomic with

respect to multiple CPU writes.

Align with the "Guidance to Software for Invalidations" in the VT-d spec

(Section 6.5.3.3) by implementing the recommended ownership handshake:

1. Clear only the 'Present' (P) bit of the context entry first to

signal the transition of ownership from hardware to software.

2. Use dma_wmb() to ensure the cleared bit is visible to the IOMMU.

3. Perform the required cache and context-cache invalidation to ensure

hardware no longer has cached references to the entry.

4. Fully zero out the entry only after the invalidation is complete.

Also, add a dma_wmb() to context_set_present() to ensure the entry

is fully initialized before the 'Present' bit becomes visible. (NVD)

What to Do

Monitor Linux's web page for any future patch releases.

References