IM
IronMonkey Threat Research

CVE-2025-40300 MEDIUM

Published: 2025-09-11 | Last Modified: 2026-07-14 | Status: Modified

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: x86/vmscape: Add conditional IBPB mitigation VMSCAPE is a vulnerability that exploits insufficient branch predictor isolation between a guest and a userspace hypervisor (like QEMU). Existing mitigations already protect kernel/KVM from a malicious guest. Userspace can additionally be protected by flushing the branch predictors after a VMexit. Since it is the userspace that consumes the poisoned branch predictors, conditionally issue an IBPB after a VMexit and before returning to userspace. Workloads that frequently switch between hypervisor and userspace will incur the most overhead from the new IBPB. This new IBPB is not integrated with the existing IBPB sites. For instance, a task can use the existing speculation control prctl() to get an IBPB at context switch time. With this implementation, the IBPB is doubled up: one at context switch and another before running userspace. The intent is to integrate and optimize these cases post-embargo. [ dhansen: elaborate on suboptimal IBPB solution ]

CVSS Metrics

Base Score: 5.5 (MEDIUM)

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack VectorLOCAL
Attack ComplexityLOW
Privileges RequiredLOW
User InteractionNONE
ScopeUNCHANGED
Confidentiality ImpactNONE
Integrity ImpactNONE
Availability ImpactHIGH

Source: [email protected]

Type: Primary

Exploitability Score: 1.8

Impact Score: 3.6

Weaknesses

Source Type Description
[email protected] Primary
en NVD-CWE-noinfo

Affected Products

Vendor Product Version Update Type
linux linux_kernel * <built-in method update of dict object at 0x702b70374180> Operating System
linux linux_kernel * <built-in method update of dict object at 0x702bfc2a5540> Operating System
linux linux_kernel * <built-in method update of dict object at 0x702bcc9b1040> Operating System
linux linux_kernel * <built-in method update of dict object at 0x702bcc9b3080> Operating System
linux linux_kernel * <built-in method update of dict object at 0x702bfc130980> Operating System
linux linux_kernel * <built-in method update of dict object at 0x702bfc130700> Operating System
linux linux_kernel * <built-in method update of dict object at 0x702bde166100> Operating System
linux linux_kernel * <built-in method update of dict object at 0x702b703779c0> Operating System
linux linux_kernel 6.17 <built-in method update of dict object at 0x702b703751c0> Operating System
linux linux_kernel 6.17 <built-in method update of dict object at 0x702bfc1327c0> Operating System
linux linux_kernel 6.17 <built-in method update of dict object at 0x702bdc3e8040> Operating System
linux linux_kernel 6.17 <built-in method update of dict object at 0x702bfc2a4f40> Operating System
linux linux_kernel 6.17 <built-in method update of dict object at 0x702b70375a00> Operating System
debian debian_linux 11.0 <built-in method update of dict object at 0x702bdc6a4300> Operating System

Affected Configurations

Operator: OR

Vulnerable CPE
Yes cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Yes cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Yes cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Yes cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Yes cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Yes cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Yes cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Yes cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Yes cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
Yes cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
Yes cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
Yes cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
Yes cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*

Operator: OR

Vulnerable CPE
Yes cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References

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