CVE-2025-68259 | KVM: SVM: Don't skip unrelated instruction if INT3/INTO is replaced

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: SVM: Don't skip unrelated instruction if INT3/INTO is replaced When re-injecting a soft interrupt from an INT3, INT0, or (select) INTn instruction, discard the exception and retry the instruction if the code stream is changed (e.g. by a different vCPU) between when the CPU executes the instruction and when KVM decodes the instruction to get the next RIP. As effectively predicted by commit 6ef88d6e36c2 ("KVM: SVM: Re-inject INT3/INTO instead of retrying the instruction"), failure to verify that the correct INTn instruction was decoded can effectively clobber guest state due to decoding the wrong instruction and thus specifying the wrong next RIP. The bug most often manifests as "Oops: int3" panics on static branch checks in Linux guests. Enabling or disabling a static branch in Linux uses the kernel's "text poke" code patching mechanism. To modify code while other CPUs may be executing that code, Linux (temporarily) replaces the first byte of the original instruction with an int3 (opcode 0xcc), then patches in the new code stream except for the first byte, and finally replaces the int3 with the first byte of the new code stream. If a CPU hits the int3, i.e. executes the code while it's being modified, then the guest kernel must look up the RIP to determine how to handle the #BP, e.g. by emulating the new instruction. If the RIP is incorrect, then this lookup fails and the guest kernel panics. The bug reproduces almost instantly by hacking the guest kernel to repeatedly check a static branch[1] while running a drgn script[2] on the host to constantly swap out the memory containing the guest's TSS. [1]: https://gist.github.com/osandov/44d17c51c28c0ac998ea0334edf90b5a [2]: https://gist.github.com/osandov/10e45e45afa29b11e0c7209247afc00b

Published: 2025-12-16 Last update: 2026-04-15 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-68259 is rated Low Risk (18.5/100): low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.06%). Mandatory action: Low composite risk—no urgent action required; patch on your normal maintenance cycle and revisit priority if CVSS or EPSS increases.

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-2025-68259

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 2026-06-07 0.04% 0.06% +0.01%
2 2026-06-05 0.06% 0.04% -0.01%
3 2026-05-26 0.06%

Full EPSS history (6 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-68259

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

No CVSS data in dataset for this CVE.

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-68259

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-68259

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2025-68259 unimportant priority: Debian including 2 source packages (linux, linux-6.1), 6 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 6. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-68259
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-68259
suse medium CVE-2025-68259 severity moderate: SUSE including 474 source package names (13.2-9.1:libsystemd0-254.23-1.1, 13.2-9.1:libudev1-254.23-1.1, …), 1100 product×package rows across 195 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/baremetal-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container, … (195 product lines)): Fixed 649, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 195, First Fixed 25. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-68259/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-68259 medium priority: Ubuntu including 157 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1405 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1010, ignored 178, released 117, not-affected 79, pending 13, needed 8. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-68259

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-68259

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2025-68259

cvelogic Threat Intelligence