CVE-2025-37957 | KVM: SVM: Forcibly leave SMM mode on SHUTDOWN interception

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: SVM: Forcibly leave SMM mode on SHUTDOWN interception Previously, commit ed129ec9057f ("KVM: x86: forcibly leave nested mode on vCPU reset") addressed an issue where a triple fault occurring in nested mode could lead to use-after-free scenarios. However, the commit did not handle the analogous situation for System Management Mode (SMM). This omission results in triggering a WARN when KVM forces a vCPU INIT after SHUTDOWN interception while the vCPU is in SMM. This situation was reprodused using Syzkaller by: 1) Creating a KVM VM and vCPU 2) Sending a KVM_SMI ioctl to explicitly enter SMM 3) Executing invalid instructions causing consecutive exceptions and eventually a triple fault The issue manifests as follows: WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 25506 at arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:12112 kvm_vcpu_reset+0x1d2/0x1530 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:12112 Modules linked in: CPU: 0 PID: 25506 Comm: syz-executor.0 Not tainted 6.1.130-syzkaller-00157-g164fe5dde9b6 #0 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.12.0-1 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:kvm_vcpu_reset+0x1d2/0x1530 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:12112 Call Trace: <TASK> shutdown_interception+0x66/0xb0 arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c:2136 svm_invoke_exit_handler+0x110/0x530 arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c:3395 svm_handle_exit+0x424/0x920 arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c:3457 vcpu_enter_guest arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:10959 [inline] vcpu_run+0x2c43/0x5a90 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:11062 kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x50f/0x1cf0 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:11283 kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x570/0xf00 arch/x86/kvm/../../../virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:4122 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline] __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:870 [inline] __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:856 [inline] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x19a/0x210 fs/ioctl.c:856 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:51 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80 arch/x86/entry/common.c:81 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6e/0xd8 Architecturally, INIT is blocked when the CPU is in SMM, hence KVM's WARN() in kvm_vcpu_reset() to guard against KVM bugs, e.g. to detect improper emulation of INIT. SHUTDOWN on SVM is a weird edge case where KVM needs to do _something_ sane with the VMCB, since it's technically undefined, and INIT is the least awful choice given KVM's ABI. So, double down on stuffing INIT on SHUTDOWN, and force the vCPU out of SMM to avoid any weirdness (and the WARN). Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller. [sean: massage changelog, make it clear this isn't architectural behavior]

Published: 2025-05-20 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-37957 is rated Low Risk (33/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.15%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-37957

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.07% 0.15% +0.09%
2 2026-03-16 0.02% 0.07% +0.05%
3 2025-05-21 0.02%

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-37957

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-37957

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-37957

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2025-37957 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-37957
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-37957
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-37957/
ubuntu low CVE-2025-37957 low priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1551 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1145, ignored 174, released 136, not-affected 68, needed 25, needs-triage 2, pending 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-37957

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-37957

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 5.15.81, < 5.16 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.0.11, < 6.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.1.1, < 6.6.92 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.29 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.14.7 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.1:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.1:rc7:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.1:rc8:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.15 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.15 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.15 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.15 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.15 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-37957

cvelogic Threat Intelligence