CVE-2026-72287: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: nVMX: Move vTPR vs. TPR Threshold consistency
Summary
A vulnerability in KVM (the Linux kernel's virtual machine module) was fixed by moving a consistency check for vTPR (virtual task priority register) and TPR Threshold into an earlier validation stage. The bug occurred because the check was happening too late in the process, allowing KVM to run with incorrect memory settings when nested virtualization (running a virtual machine inside another virtual machine) was enabled.
Solution / Mitigation
Move the vTPR vs. TPR Threshold consistency check into the 'normal' controls checks that happen earlier in the process. Access vTPR using a regular guest memory access instead of deferring the check. Use a VM-scoped API to read guest memory to ensure it accesses the correct memory locations, and skip the check when userspace is restoring state. If reading guest memory fails, skip the consistency check, since reads from non-existent memory return 0xFF, which guarantees vTPR is greater than or equal to TPR_THRESHOLD.
Vulnerability Details
EPSS: 0.0%
August 15, 2026
Classification
Original source: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-72287
First tracked: August 15, 2026 at 08:08 AM
Classified by LLM (prompt v3) · confidence: 95%