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

KVM: Allow CPU to reschedule while setting per-page memory attributes

When running an SEV-SNP guest with a sufficiently large amount of memory (1TB+),
the host can experience CPU soft lockups when running an operation in
kvm_vm_set_mem_attributes() to set memory attributes on the whole
range of guest memory.

watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#8 stuck for 26s! [qemu-kvm:6372]
CPU: 8 UID: 0 PID: 6372 Comm: qemu-kvm Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.15.0-rc7.20250520.el9uek.rc1.x86_64 #1 PREEMPT(voluntary)
Hardware name: Oracle Corporation ORACLE SERVER E4-2c/Asm,MB Tray,2U,E4-2c, BIOS 78016600 11/13/2024
RIP: 0010:xas_create+0x78/0x1f0
Code: 00 00 00 41 80 fc 01 0f 84 82 00 00 00 ba 06 00 00 00 bd 06 00 00 00 49 8b 45 08 4d 8d 65 08 41 39 d6 73 20 83 ed 06 48 85 c0 <74> 67 48 89 c2 83 e2 03 48 83 fa 02 75 0c 48 3d 00 10 00 00 0f 87
RSP: 0018:ffffad890a34b940 EFLAGS: 00000286
RAX: ffff96f30b261daa RBX: ffffad890a34b9c8 RCX: 0000000000000000
RDX: 000000000000001e RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000000
RBP: 0000000000000018 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffffad890a356868
R13: ffffad890a356860 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffffad890a356868
FS: 00007f5578a2a400(0000) GS:ffff97ed317e1000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 00007f015c70fb18 CR3: 00000001109fd006 CR4: 0000000000f70ef0
PKRU: 55555554
Call Trace:
<TASK>
xas_store+0x58/0x630
__xa_store+0xa5/0x130
xa_store+0x2c/0x50
kvm_vm_set_mem_attributes+0x343/0x710 [kvm]
kvm_vm_ioctl+0x796/0xab0 [kvm]
__x64_sys_ioctl+0xa3/0xd0
do_syscall_64+0x8c/0x7a0
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
RIP: 0033:0x7f5578d031bb
Code: ff ff ff 85 c0 79 9b 49 c7 c4 ff ff ff ff 5b 5d 4c 89 e0 41 5c c3 66 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 f3 0f 1e fa b8 10 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 8b 0d 2d 4c 0f 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48
RSP: 002b:00007ffe0a742b88 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000010
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 000000004020aed2 RCX: 00007f5578d031bb
RDX: 00007ffe0a742c80 RSI: 000000004020aed2 RDI: 000000000000000b
RBP: 0000010000000000 R08: 0000010000000000 R09: 0000017680000000
R10: 0000000000000080 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 00005575e5f95120
R13: 00007ffe0a742c80 R14: 0000000000000008 R15: 00005575e5f961e0

While looping through the range of memory setting the attributes,
call cond_resched() to give the scheduler a chance to run a higher
priority task on the runqueue if necessary and avoid staying in
kernel mode long enough to trigger the lockup.
Fixes

Solution

No solution given by the vendor.


Workaround

No workaround given by the vendor.

History

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 00:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

threat_severity

Moderate


Mon, 18 Aug 2025 21:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Linux
Linux linux Kernel
Vendors & Products Linux
Linux linux Kernel

Sat, 16 Aug 2025 11:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: Allow CPU to reschedule while setting per-page memory attributes When running an SEV-SNP guest with a sufficiently large amount of memory (1TB+), the host can experience CPU soft lockups when running an operation in kvm_vm_set_mem_attributes() to set memory attributes on the whole range of guest memory. watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#8 stuck for 26s! [qemu-kvm:6372] CPU: 8 UID: 0 PID: 6372 Comm: qemu-kvm Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.15.0-rc7.20250520.el9uek.rc1.x86_64 #1 PREEMPT(voluntary) Hardware name: Oracle Corporation ORACLE SERVER E4-2c/Asm,MB Tray,2U,E4-2c, BIOS 78016600 11/13/2024 RIP: 0010:xas_create+0x78/0x1f0 Code: 00 00 00 41 80 fc 01 0f 84 82 00 00 00 ba 06 00 00 00 bd 06 00 00 00 49 8b 45 08 4d 8d 65 08 41 39 d6 73 20 83 ed 06 48 85 c0 <74> 67 48 89 c2 83 e2 03 48 83 fa 02 75 0c 48 3d 00 10 00 00 0f 87 RSP: 0018:ffffad890a34b940 EFLAGS: 00000286 RAX: ffff96f30b261daa RBX: ffffad890a34b9c8 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 000000000000001e RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000000 RBP: 0000000000000018 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffffad890a356868 R13: ffffad890a356860 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffffad890a356868 FS: 00007f5578a2a400(0000) GS:ffff97ed317e1000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00007f015c70fb18 CR3: 00000001109fd006 CR4: 0000000000f70ef0 PKRU: 55555554 Call Trace: <TASK> xas_store+0x58/0x630 __xa_store+0xa5/0x130 xa_store+0x2c/0x50 kvm_vm_set_mem_attributes+0x343/0x710 [kvm] kvm_vm_ioctl+0x796/0xab0 [kvm] __x64_sys_ioctl+0xa3/0xd0 do_syscall_64+0x8c/0x7a0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e RIP: 0033:0x7f5578d031bb Code: ff ff ff 85 c0 79 9b 49 c7 c4 ff ff ff ff 5b 5d 4c 89 e0 41 5c c3 66 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 f3 0f 1e fa b8 10 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 8b 0d 2d 4c 0f 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48 RSP: 002b:00007ffe0a742b88 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000010 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 000000004020aed2 RCX: 00007f5578d031bb RDX: 00007ffe0a742c80 RSI: 000000004020aed2 RDI: 000000000000000b RBP: 0000010000000000 R08: 0000010000000000 R09: 0000017680000000 R10: 0000000000000080 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 00005575e5f95120 R13: 00007ffe0a742c80 R14: 0000000000000008 R15: 00005575e5f961e0 While looping through the range of memory setting the attributes, call cond_resched() to give the scheduler a chance to run a higher priority task on the runqueue if necessary and avoid staying in kernel mode long enough to trigger the lockup.
Title KVM: Allow CPU to reschedule while setting per-page memory attributes
References

cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Linux

Published:

Updated: 2025-08-16T10:54:43.826Z

Reserved: 2025-04-16T04:51:24.022Z

Link: CVE-2025-38506

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Awaiting Analysis

Published: 2025-08-16T11:15:43.527

Modified: 2025-08-18T20:16:28.750

Link: CVE-2025-38506

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Moderate

Publid Date: 2025-08-16T00:00:00Z

Links: CVE-2025-38506 - Bugzilla

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2025-08-18T20:50:03Z