High severity · published Mar 4, 2022
CVE-2021-3656
A flaw was found in the KVM's AMD code for supporting SVM nested virtualization
8.8
CVSS
0.7%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
A flaw was found in the KVM's AMD code for supporting SVM nested virtualization. The flaw occurs when processing the VMCB (virtual machine control block) provided by the L1 guest to spawn/handle a nested guest (L2). Due to improper validation of the "virt_ext" field, this issue could allow a malicious L1 to disable both VMLOAD/VMSAVE intercepts and VLS (Virtual VMLOAD/VMSAVE) for the L2 guest. As a result, the L2 guest would be allowed to read/write physical pages of the host, resulting in a crash of the entire system, leak of sensitive data or potential guest-to-host escape.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Changed
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.7% · higher than 51% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
KE
Kernel · Linux
4.13 before 4.14.245; 4.15 before 4.19.205; 4.20 before 5.4.142; 5.5 before 5.10.60; 5.11 before 5.13.12; 5.14; +6 more · source: NVD
3A
3scale Api Management · Redhat
2.0 · source: NVD
CL
Codeready Linux Builder · Redhat
All versions, or not specified · source: NVD
EL
Enterprise Linux · Redhat
8.0 · source: NVD
EL
Enterprise Linux Desktop · Redhat
7.0 · source: NVD
EL
Enterprise Linux Eus · Redhat
8.1; 8.2; 8.4 · source: NVD
EL
Enterprise Linux For Ibm Z Systems · Redhat
7.0; 8.0 · source: NVD
EL
Enterprise Linux For Ibm Z Systems Eus · Redhat
8.1; 8.2; 8.4 · source: NVD
EL
Enterprise Linux For Power Big Endian · Redhat
7.0 · source: NVD
EL
Enterprise Linux For Power Little Endian · Redhat
7.0; 8.0 · source: NVD
EL
Enterprise Linux For Power Little Endian Eus · Redhat
8.1; 8.2; 8.4 · source: NVD
EL
Enterprise Linux For Real Time · Redhat
7; 8 · source: NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-3656
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-3656
Issue Tracking
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1983988
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/virt/kvm/kvm.git/commit/?id=c7dfa4009965a9b2d7b329ee970eb8da0d32f0bc
Patch
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/c7dfa4009965a9b2d7b329ee970eb8da0d32f0bc
Mailing List
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/08/16/1
More from Kernel
9.8
CVE-2025-39682
tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list
8.8
CVE-2026-53266
netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable
8.8
CVE-2013-6282
Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Vulnerability
8.4
CVE-2022-0185
Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
8.4
CVE-2013-2094
Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
