Linux guests may show "CPA detected W^X violation" warning on ESXi 7.0.3.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When booting Linux guests on EFI firmware with Linux kernel 6.1 or later, as well as any Linux guests that have backported the relevant patches, the following kernel log warning message may be seen:

CPA detected W^X violation: 8000000000000063 -> 0000000000000063 range: 0x000000000ff06000 - 0x000000000ff06fff PFN ff06

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.3

Resolution

No workaround is necessary, as the kernel log only displays a warning and the boot does not fail. This is fixed in ESXi 7.0 Update 3l.