In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: VMX: Do _all_ initialization before exposing /dev/kvm to userspace Call kvm_init() only after _all_ setup is complete, as kvm_init() exposes /dev/kvm to userspace and thus allows userspace to create VMs (and call other ioctls). E.g. KVM will encounter a NULL pointer when attempting to add a vCPU to the per-CPU loaded_vmcss_on_cpu list if userspace is able to create a VM before vmx_init() configures said list. BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000008 #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: 0002 [#1] SMP CPU: 6 PID: 1143 Comm: stable Not tainted 6.0.0-rc7+ #988 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0