Vulnerabilities

Vulnerability · CVE-2026-90040

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: SEV: Forcefully invalidate SNP VMSA if its backing gmem page is zapped Wire up a gmem_invalida…

Published Sep 16, 2026 · catalog updated Oct 15, 2026 · the affected product

Check if you run it

No confirmed exploitation is on record for CVE-2026-90040. EPSS is 0.21%. Act only if a listed version of the affected product is installed.

Gaps on this record

  • No plain product name is stored. The page cannot tell you which product to check.
  • No version range is stored. A customer cannot check an installed version against this record.
  • No vendor fix or required action is stored. Compare the linked advisory before you change production.
Severity
Unknown—
Known exploitation
Not in CISA/VulnCheck KEV
EPSS
0.21%
Remediation
Not established
Affected products
See sources for product scope

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: SEV: Forcefully invalidate SNP VMSA if its backing gmem page is zapped Wire up a gmem_invalidate_range() call for SNP VMs, and use it to force vCPUs to reload/recheck their guest-provided VMSA if the backing gmem page is being invalidated, e.g. is being PUNCH_HOLE'd. Use the same core logic to handle invalidations as VMX does for the APIC-access page, as the two concepts are nearly identical: shove the physical address of a page into the vCPU's control structure: 1. Snapshot the invalidation sequence counter 2. Grab the pfn (from guest_memfd in this case) 3. Acquire mmu_lock for read 4. Re-request reload if retry is needed, otherwise commit the change. Note, the re-request action in #4 is necessary as KVM's retry logic is fuzzy, i.e. can get false positives. If the guest_memfd page has been dropped, at some point a subsequent reload will fail to get a PFN from guest_memfd, and KVM will fail KVM_RUN. If the retry was due to a false positive, KVM will retry until there are no relevant MMU notifier events (and will retry in the "outer" loop, i.e. will drop locks and resched as needed). Note #2! Take care to invalidate the VMSA when a relevant memslot is DELETED or MOVED, as invalidations in response to PUNCH_HOLE are predicated on memslot bindings (KVM doesn't know what GFN range(s) to invalidate without a binding). And more importantly, the VMSA mapping requires a memslot, i.e. must be invalidated if its memslots disappears, regardless of the state of the underlying guest_memfd inode. Failure to invalidate the vCPU's control.vmsa_pa (which is checked by pre_sev_run()) can prevent KVM from properly freeing the page as firmware will reject the RMPUPDATE to reclaim the page with FAIL_INUSE if the vCPU is actively running, i.e. if VMSA page is in-use. That in turn leads to an RMP #PF on the next use, as the page will still be assigned to the SNP VM. SEV-SNP: RMPUPDATE failed for PFN 78d198, pg_level:

No affected version ranges are stored yet. Use the vendor advisory before you decide this record does not apply.

How to fix CVE-2026-90040

What to do

Three questions, each answered from this record only. Confirm the vendor advisory before you patch.

Should you patch?

No confirmed exploitation is on record for CVE-2026-90040. EPSS is 0.21%. Act only if a listed version of the affected product is installed.

Which versions are affected?

Affected version ranges are not on this record. Compare the installed version with the linked vendor advisory before you change production.

What should an analyst verify?

No weakness class is stored. EPSS 0.21%. There is no CISA KEV listing. No Exploit-DB or Metasploit reference is linked. Use the source links for the original advisory.

Code

The project this record applies to. Exploit listings stay in References.

Timeline

Detection, updates, and resolution for this record.

  1. Sep 16, 2026 · NIST NVD

    Detected

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: SEV: Forcefully invalidate SNP VMSA if its backing gmem page is zapped Wire up a gmem_invalidate_range() call for SNP VMs, and use it to force vCPUs to reload/recheck their guest-provided VMSA if the backing gmem page is being invalidated, e.g. is being PUNCH_HOLE'd. Use the same core logic to handle invalidations as VMX does

  2. Oct 15, 2026 · NIST NVD

    Updated

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: SEV: Forcefully invalidate SNP VMSA if its backing gmem page is zapped Wire up a gmem_invalidate_range() call for SNP VMs, and use it to force vCPUs to reload/recheck their guest-provided VMSA if the backing gmem page is being invalidated, e.g. is being PUNCH_HOLE'd. Use the same core logic to handle invalidations as VMX does

Sources

  • CVE.orgVulnerability recordCVE-2026-90040

    Official CVE identifier

    cve.org
  • FIRST EPSSExploitation probabilityCVE-2026-90040

    30-day exploitation probability 0.2%

    first.org
  • NIST NVDVulnerability recordCVE-2026-90040

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: SEV: Forcefully invalidate SNP VMSA if its backing gmem page is zapped Wire up a gmem_invalidate_range() call for SNP VMs, and use it to force vCPUs to reload/recheck their guest-provided VMSA if the backi

    nvd.nist.gov

References

Freshness

Last verified in this catalog Oct 18, 2026. Significant claims (KEV, EPSS, CVSS, affected ranges) come from the source rows above — open the original publisher for the authoritative advisory.