Memory Access Vulnerability in QEMU Affects System Management Mode
CVE-2026-81627

6.7MEDIUM

Key Information:

Vendor

Red Hat
Status
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Vendor
CVE Published:
18 September 2026

What is CVE-2026-81627?

A flaw exists in QEMU related to the VAPIC setup hypercall, where the verification of writable RAM aliases is not properly enforced within the option ROM window. This oversight allows a privileged guest user on a Q35/KVM machine to manipulate this alias, potentially overlapping it with locked System Management Mode RAM. As a result, it circumvents the chipset's D_LCK protection, creating an opportunity for malicious code to be injected into System Management Mode memory.

References

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-81627
vdb-entryx_refsource_REDHAT
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2536950
issue-trackingx_refsource_REDHAT
https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/work_items/4206

CVSS V3.1

Score:
6.7
Severity:
MEDIUM
Confidentiality:
High
Integrity:
High
Availability:
High
Attack Vector:
Local
Attack Complexity:
Low
Privileges Required:
High
User Interaction:
None
Scope:
Unchanged

Timeline

  • Vulnerability published

  • Vulnerability Reserved

Credit

Red Hat would like to thank Artem Dinaburg (Trail of Bits) for reporting this issue.
.