In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
x86/vmware: Fix hypercall clobbers
Fedora QA reported the following panic:
BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 0000000040003e54
#PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode
#PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS edk2-20251119-3.fc43 11/19/2025
RIP: 0010:vmware_hypercall4.constprop.0+0x52/0x90
..
Call Trace:
vmmouse_report_events+0x13e/0x1b0
psmouse_handle_byte+0x15/0x60
ps2_interrupt+0x8a/0xd0
...
because the QEMU VMware mouse emulation is buggy, and clears the top 32
bits of %rdi that the kernel kept a pointer in.
The QEMU vmmouse driver saves and restores the register state in a
"uint32_t data[6];" and as a result restores the state with the high
bits all cleared.
RDI originally contained the value of a valid kernel stack address
(0xff5eeb3240003e54). After the vmware hypercall it now contains
0x40003e54, and we get a page fault as a result when it is dereferenced.
The proper fix would be in QEMU, but this works around the issue in the
kernel to keep old setups working, when old kernels had not happened to
keep any state in %rdi over the hypercall.
In theory this same issue exists for all the hypercalls in the vmmouse
driver; in practice it has only been seen with vmware_hypercall3() and
vmware_hypercall4(). For now, just mark RDI/RSI as clobbered for those
two calls. This should have a minimal effect on code generation overall
as it should be rare for the compiler to want to make RDI/RSI live
across hypercalls.
x86/vmware: Fix hypercall clobbers
Fedora QA reported the following panic:
BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 0000000040003e54
#PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode
#PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS edk2-20251119-3.fc43 11/19/2025
RIP: 0010:vmware_hypercall4.constprop.0+0x52/0x90
..
Call Trace:
vmmouse_report_events+0x13e/0x1b0
psmouse_handle_byte+0x15/0x60
ps2_interrupt+0x8a/0xd0
...
because the QEMU VMware mouse emulation is buggy, and clears the top 32
bits of %rdi that the kernel kept a pointer in.
The QEMU vmmouse driver saves and restores the register state in a
"uint32_t data[6];" and as a result restores the state with the high
bits all cleared.
RDI originally contained the value of a valid kernel stack address
(0xff5eeb3240003e54). After the vmware hypercall it now contains
0x40003e54, and we get a page fault as a result when it is dereferenced.
The proper fix would be in QEMU, but this works around the issue in the
kernel to keep old setups working, when old kernels had not happened to
keep any state in %rdi over the hypercall.
In theory this same issue exists for all the hypercalls in the vmmouse
driver; in practice it has only been seen with vmware_hypercall3() and
vmware_hypercall4(). For now, just mark RDI/RSI as clobbered for those
two calls. This should have a minimal effect on code generation overall
as it should be rare for the compiler to want to make RDI/RSI live
across hypercalls.
Metrics
Affected Vendors & Products
Advisories
| Source | ID | Title |
|---|---|---|
 Debian DSA |
DSA-6141-1 | linux security update |
Fixes
Solution
No solution given by the vendor.
Workaround
No workaround given by the vendor.
References
History
Wed, 18 Feb 2026 14:45:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Description | In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: x86/vmware: Fix hypercall clobbers Fedora QA reported the following panic: BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 0000000040003e54 #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS edk2-20251119-3.fc43 11/19/2025 RIP: 0010:vmware_hypercall4.constprop.0+0x52/0x90 .. Call Trace: vmmouse_report_events+0x13e/0x1b0 psmouse_handle_byte+0x15/0x60 ps2_interrupt+0x8a/0xd0 ... because the QEMU VMware mouse emulation is buggy, and clears the top 32 bits of %rdi that the kernel kept a pointer in. The QEMU vmmouse driver saves and restores the register state in a "uint32_t data[6];" and as a result restores the state with the high bits all cleared. RDI originally contained the value of a valid kernel stack address (0xff5eeb3240003e54). After the vmware hypercall it now contains 0x40003e54, and we get a page fault as a result when it is dereferenced. The proper fix would be in QEMU, but this works around the issue in the kernel to keep old setups working, when old kernels had not happened to keep any state in %rdi over the hypercall. In theory this same issue exists for all the hypercalls in the vmmouse driver; in practice it has only been seen with vmware_hypercall3() and vmware_hypercall4(). For now, just mark RDI/RSI as clobbered for those two calls. This should have a minimal effect on code generation overall as it should be rare for the compiler to want to make RDI/RSI live across hypercalls. | |
| Title | x86/vmware: Fix hypercall clobbers | |
| First Time appeared |
Linux
Linux linux Kernel |
|
| CPEs | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | |
| Vendors & Products |
Linux
Linux linux Kernel |
|
| References |
|
Projects
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MITRE
Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: Linux
Published:
Updated: 2026-02-18T14:21:52.515Z
Reserved: 2026-01-13T15:37:45.987Z
Link: CVE-2026-23215
Vulnrichment
No data.
NVD
Status : Received
Published: 2026-02-18T15:18:42.843
Modified: 2026-02-18T15:18:42.843
Link: CVE-2026-23215
Redhat
No data.
OpenCVE Enrichment
No data.
Weaknesses
No weakness.