Medium [CVE-2026-68093] Linux kernel KVM: ASID collision after CPU hotplug leads to denial of service
This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-68093 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.
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Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: SVM: Bump asid_generation on CPU online to avoid ASID collision after hotplug If a vCPU stays scheduled out (or blocked) while the last pCPU it ran on goes through a hotplug cycle (online->offline->online), and the vCPU then resumes execution on the same pCPU, then it is possible for it to run with an ASID that has now been assigned to a different vCPU, resulting in stale TLB translations being used. svm_enable_virtualization_cpu() resets asid_generation to 1 and sets next_asid to max_asid + 1 on every CPU online event, including hotplug cycles.
Because next_asid starts beyond the pool boundary, the first call to new_asid() after an online event always wraps the pool, incrementing asid_generation to 2 and assigning ASIDs starting from min_asid. Consider two vCPUs from different VMs, vCPU-A pinned to CPU-X holding asid_generation=2 and ASID=N from before the hotplug event: 1.
2. One or more vCPUs migrate to CPU-X and call new_asid(), wrapping the pool and consuming ASIDs starting from min_asid.
3. vCPU-A enters pre_svm_run() on CPU-X: current_vmcb->cpu is unchanged so the migration branch is skipped. Its saved asid_generation=2 matches sd->asid_generation=2, so the generation check silently passes and vCPU-A continues running with ASID=N — the same ASID just freshly assigned to vCPU-B.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 1 hour ago·verify at source
Fixed versions
No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists — confirm against the vendor advisory.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 1 hour ago·verify at source
Mitigation
The source record does not include mitigation steps. That is not a statement that no fix exists — read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 1 hour ago·verify at source
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