KVM: arm64: Remove VM-wide VNCR mapping counter
The global VNCR mapping counter is used to decide whether an L1
provided VNCR page is mapped in L0 on any CPU at the point of
dealing with a TLB invalidation. It is incremented when a mapping
is made in the fixmap, and decremented when unmapped.
As it turns out, this tracking has several flaws:
- we are trying to invalidate TLBs, and the mapping is only an
opportunistic consequence of the TLB. Checking this counter to
decide whether a TLB needs to be invalidated may result in missed
invalidations.
- an L1 vcpu invalidating its own TLB (a very likely case) will not
succeed in invalidating the VNCR pseudo TLB because that page is
not mapped in L0 at this stage.
Given that this tracking fails at delivering the minimum guarantees
that are required and is only a performance optimisation, remove it
completely.
Analysis
Analysis and contextual insights are available on OpenCVE Cloud.
Default status is the baseline for the product, each version can override it (e.g. patched versions marked unaffected).
| Vendor | Product | Default status | Versions | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | unaffected |
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| Linux | Linux | affected |
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No data.
No data.
No data available yet.
No vendor fix or workaround currently provided.
Additional remediation guidance may be available on OpenCVE Cloud.
Tracking
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Wed, 16 Sep 2026 10:45:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Description | In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: arm64: Remove VM-wide VNCR mapping counter The global VNCR mapping counter is used to decide whether an L1 provided VNCR page is mapped in L0 on any CPU at the point of dealing with a TLB invalidation. It is incremented when a mapping is made in the fixmap, and decremented when unmapped. As it turns out, this tracking has several flaws: - we are trying to invalidate TLBs, and the mapping is only an opportunistic consequence of the TLB. Checking this counter to decide whether a TLB needs to be invalidated may result in missed invalidations. - an L1 vcpu invalidating its own TLB (a very likely case) will not succeed in invalidating the VNCR pseudo TLB because that page is not mapped in L0 at this stage. Given that this tracking fails at delivering the minimum guarantees that are required and is only a performance optimisation, remove it completely. | |
| Title | KVM: arm64: Remove VM-wide VNCR mapping counter | |
| First Time appeared |
Linux
Linux linux Kernel |
|
| CPEs | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | |
| Vendors & Products |
Linux
Linux linux Kernel |
|
| References |
|
MITRE
Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: Linux
Published:
Updated: 2026-09-16T10:32:11.309Z
Reserved: 2026-09-11T19:38:34.775Z
Link: CVE-2026-89915
Vulnrichment
No data.
NVD
Status : Received
Published: 2026-09-16T11:17:00.553
Modified: 2026-09-16T11:17:00.553
Link: CVE-2026-89915
Redhat
No data.
OpenCVE Enrichment
No data.
No weakness.