CVE-2026-81627
Qemu-kvm: vapic writable rom alias can escape the option-rom window and expose locked smram
- Published
- Last modified
- Where the record stands: published, rejected by its publisher, or superseded by another id.What do these mean? →
- published
- Whether CISA lists it in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog: proof that attackers are using it.What do these mean? →
- Not listed in CISA KEV
- Whether working attack code is public (Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or GitHub). Public code makes attacks easier.What do these mean? →
- None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub
CISA's decision points: whether it is exploited, whether attacks can be automated, and how much control an attacker gets. Assessed (SSVC 2.0.3).What do these mean? →
- Exploitation: poc
- Automatable: no
- Technical impact: total
Summary
A flaw was found in QEMU. The VAPIC setup hypercall in hw/i386/vapic.c does not validate that the writable RAM alias remains within the option ROM window. A privileged guest user on a Q35/KVM machine can position this alias over locked SMRAM, bypassing chipset D_LCK protection and injecting code into System Management Mode memory.
Timeline
- CVE published
- CISA SSVC assessment
Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
- Record last updated
Affected versions
- qemu-kvm
Version range not reported
- qemu-kvm
Version range not reported
- qemu-kvm
Version range not reported
- qemu-kvm-ma
Version range not reported
- virt-devel:rhel/qemu-kvm
Version range not reported
- virt:rhel/qemu-kvm
Version range not reported
- qemu-kvm
Version range not reported
- qemu-kvm
Version range not reported
- openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8
Version range not reported
- openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9
Version range not reported
- qemu-kvm-rhev
Version range not reported