CVE-2025-21839
CVE-2025-21839CVE-2025-21839
linux / linux_kernel
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
KVM: x86: Load DR6 with guest value only before entering .vcpu_run() loop
Move the conditional loading of hardware DR6 with the guest's DR6 value
out of the core .vcpu_run() loop to fix a bug where KVM can load hardware
with a stale vcpu->arch.dr6.
When the guest accesses a DR and host userspace isn't debugging the guest,
KVM disables DR interception and loads the guest's values into hardware on
VM-Enter and saves them on VM-Exit. This allows the guest to access DRs
at will, e.g. so that a sequence of DR accesses to configure a breakpoint
only generates one VM-Exit.
For DR0-DR3, the logic/behavior is identical between VMX and SVM, and also
identical between KVM_DEBUGREG_BP_ENABLED (userspace debugging the guest)
and KVM_DEBUGREG_WONT_EXIT (guest using DRs), and so KVM handles loading
DR0-DR3 in common code, _outside_ of the core kvm_x86_ops.vcpu_run() loop.
But for DR6, the guest's value doesn't need to be loaded
Scoring
| CVSS | 7.3 () |
| Vector | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:H |
| Last modified | 2026-07-30 |