CVE-2026-46113 | KVM: x86: Fix shadow paging use-after-free due to unexpected GFN

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: x86: Fix shadow paging use-after-free due to unexpected GFN The shadow MMU computes GFNs for direct shadow pages using sp->gfn plus the SPTE index. This assumption breaks for shadow paging if the guest page tables are modified between VM entries (similar to commit aad885e77496, "KVM: x86/mmu: Drop/zap existing present SPTE even when creating an MMIO SPTE", 2026-03-27). The flow is as follows: - a PDE is installed for a 2MB mapping, and a page in that area is accessed. KVM creates a kvm_mmu_page consisting of 512 4KB pages; the kvm_mmu_page is marked by FNAME(fetch) as direct-mapped because the guest's mapping is a huge page (and thus contiguous). - the PDE mapping is changed from outside the guest. - the guest accesses another page in the same 2MB area. KVM installs a new leaf SPTE and rmap entry; the SPTE uses the "correct" GFN (i.e. based on the new mapping, as changed in the previous step) but that GFN is outside of the [sp->gfn, sp->gfn + 511] range; therefore the rmap entry cannot be found and removed when the kvm_mmu_page is zapped. - the memslot that covers the first 2MB mapping is deleted, and the kvm_mmu_page for the now-invalid GPA is zapped. However, rmap_remove() only looks at the [sp->gfn, sp->gfn + 511] range established in step 1, and fails to find the rmap entry that was recorded by step 3. - any operation that causes an rmap walk for the same page accessed by step 3 then walks a stale rmap and dereferences a freed kvm_mmu_page. This includes dirty logging or MMU notifier invalidations (e.g., from MADV_DONTNEED). The underlying issue is that KVM's walking of shadow PTEs assumes that if a SPTE is present when KVM wants to install a non-leaf SPTE, then the existing kvm_mmu_page must be for the correct gfn. Because the only way for the gfn to be wrong is if KVM messed up and failed to zap a SPTE... which shouldn't happen, but *actually* only happens in response to a guest write. That bug dates back literally forever, as even the first version of KVM assumes that the GFN matches and walks into the "wrong" shadow page. However, that was only an imprecision until 2032a93d66fa ("KVM: MMU: Don't allocate gfns page for direct mmu pages") came along. Fix it by checking for a target gfn mismatch and zapping the existing SPTE. That way the old SP and rmap entries are gone, KVM installs the rmap in the right location, and everyone is happy.

Published: 2026-05-28 Last update: 2026-06-01 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-46113 is rated Low Risk (37/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). 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-2026-46113

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 2026-05-28 0.02%

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-46113

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/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:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
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.
2.0 6.0 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-46113

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-46113

GHSA-gcf3-9g28-gv44 · Severity: high — In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: x86: Fix shadow paging...

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-46113

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-46113 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 3, open 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-46113
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-46113
suse high CVE-2026-46113 severity important: SUSE including 16 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 54 product×package rows across 14 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7, SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP7, … (14 product lines)): Known Not Affected 54. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-46113/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-46113 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1422 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1024, ignored 173, needed 141, released 84. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-46113

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-46113

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2026-46113

cvelogic Threat Intelligence