Critical Linux Kernel kernel performance subsystem Vulnerability Scores 9.3 CVSS

Status: UPDATED  |  Advisory ID: CVE-2026-74568

Key Details

Affected Products, Subsystems & Sectors

What to Know

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

KVM: arm64: vgic: Fix race between LPI release and re-registration

Fix a potential race between decrementing an LPI's reference count and

evicting that structure from the LPI xarray.

LPI structures are maintained in the VGIC LPI xarray (dist->lpi_xa).

When the reference count of an LPI structure drops to zero,

vgic_release_lpi_locked() removes the structure from the xarray and

frees it under the xarray lock.

However, the release of an LPI can race with a concurrent LPI

re-registration with the same INTID via vgic_add_lpi() on another CPU,

since the reference count drop and the xarray eviction are not performed

in a single atomic step. This can happen e.g. if the guest issues a

DISCARD while the LPI is still referenced from a vCPU's active-pending

list (ap_list), and the same INTID is re-mapped via MAPTI.

Particularly, vgic_release_lpi_locked() is called from two distinct

paths: direct release via vgic_put_irq(), and deferred release via

vgic_release_deleted_lpis(). During direct release, the issue can result

in deleting a newly registered LPI from the xarray:

CPU0 (Releasing LPI) CPU1 (Adding new LPI)

==================== =====================

vgic_put_irq()

__vgic_put_irq()

refcount_dec_and_test()

vgic_add_lpi()

xa_lock_irqsave()

old_irq = xa_load(.., intid)

vgic_try_get_irq_ref(old_irq) == false

new IRQ inserted --> __xa_store(.., intid, ..)

xa_unlock_irqrestore()

xa_lock_irqsave();

vgic_release_lpi_locked()

__xa_erase(.., irq->intid) <-- BUG: new IRQ is erased

kfree_rcu(old_irq)

During the deferred release path, the old IRQ can be leaked:

CPU0 (Releasing LPI) CPU1 (Adding new LPI)

==================== =====================

vgic_put_irq_norelease()

__vgic_put_irq()

refcount_dec_and_test()

irq->pending_release = true

vgic_add_lpi()

xa_lock_irqsave()

old_irq = xa_load(.., intid)

vgic_try_get_irq_ref(oldirq) == false

BUG: old IRQ overwritten --> __xa_store(.., intid, ..)

xa_unlock_irqrestore()

vgic_release_deleted_lpis()

xa_lock_irqsave()

xa_for_each() { .. } <-- old IRQ with pending_release = true

is gone, so it cannot be released

To fix the direct release path, move the reference count drop inside

the xarray lock, making sure that vgic_add_lpi() never encounters the

to-be-released LPI.

In the deferred release path, the refcount drop must happen under a raw

spinlock, so the xarray lock cannot be grabbed, and the same solution

does not work. Instead, update vgic_add_lpi(), so that if it evicts

an LPI from the xarray, it takes on the responsibility of freeing it.

Consequently, an LPI may now be freed concurrently after a deferred

release drops the refcount, so accessing the pending_release field is no

longer safe from use-after-free. Delete all uses of the flag, and update

vgic_release_deleted_lpis() to identify orphaned LPIs purely based on

their refcount. (NVD)

What to Do

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

References