A reachable assertion in the illumos bhyve instruction emulator allows a guest to panic the host. When emulating a REP-prefixed MOVS or STOS instruction that accesses guest MMIO, vie_emulate_movs() and vie_emulate_stos() in usr/src/uts/intel/io/vmm/vmm_instruction_emul.c do not clear the VIES_REPEAT status flag on the final iteration. For MMIO regions emulated in the kernel (the local APIC, I/O APIC and HPET), the stale flag causes a VERIFY assertion in vie_advance_pc() to fail, and the host panics. A privileged user within a guest VM can issue a REP MOVS or REP STOS instruction against the local APIC page to cause a denial of service of the host and every other guest running on it. The flaw has existed since 2020 (illumos-gate commit e0c0d44e), and affects any illumos distribution prior to illumos-gate commit 696ecf8d.
Weakness
The product contains an assert() or similar statement that can be triggered by an attacker, which leads to an application exit or other behavior that is more severe than necessary.
Extended Description
While assertion is good for catching logic errors and reducing the chances of reaching more serious vulnerability conditions, it can still lead to a denial of service. For example, if a server handles multiple simultaneous connections, and an assert() occurs in one single connection that causes all other connections to be dropped, this is a reachable assertion that leads to a denial of service.
Potential Mitigations
References
- https://github.com/illumos/illumos-gate/commit/696ecf8debceed9dc33937d8c8e111e4aeebfdae
- https://illumos.org/issues/18491
- https://illumos.topicbox.com/groups/developer/T697a32b688807e56/cve-2026-102916-18491-bhyve-rep-prefix-instr-emulation-fumbles-flags
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/10/09/19