Information Exposure Affecting kernel-uki-virt package, versions <0:5.14.0-284.25.1.el9_2
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Test your applications- Snyk ID SNYK-ALMALINUX9-KERNELUKIVIRT-5828781
- published 8 Aug 2023
- disclosed 1 Aug 2023
Introduced: 1 Aug 2023
CVE-2023-1998 Open this link in a new tabHow to fix?
Upgrade AlmaLinux:9 kernel-uki-virt to version 0:5.14.0-284.25.1.el9_2 or higher.
This issue was patched in ALSA-2023:4377.
NVD Description
Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream kernel-uki-virt package and not the kernel-uki-virt package as distributed by AlmaLinux.
See How to fix? for AlmaLinux:9 relevant fixed versions and status.
The Linux kernel allows userspace processes to enable mitigations by calling prctl with PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL which disables the speculation feature as well as by using seccomp. We had noticed that on VMs of at least one major cloud provider, the kernel still left the victim process exposed to attacks in some cases even after enabling the spectre-BTI mitigation with prctl. The same behavior can be observed on a bare-metal machine when forcing the mitigation to IBRS on boot command line.
This happened because when plain IBRS was enabled (not enhanced IBRS), the kernel had some logic that determined that STIBP was not needed. The IBRS bit implicitly protects against cross-thread branch target injection. However, with legacy IBRS, the IBRS bit was cleared on returning to userspace, due to performance reasons, which disabled the implicit STIBP and left userspace threads vulnerable to cross-thread branch target injection against which STIBP protects.
References
- https://errata.almalinux.org/9/ALSA-2023-4377.html
- https://errata.almalinux.org/9/ALSA-2023-4378.html
- https://errata.almalinux.org/8/ALSA-2023-7077.html
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-1998
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2023:4377
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2023:4378
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2023:7077
- https://github.com/google/security-research/security/advisories/GHSA-mj4w-6495-6crx
- https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/6921ed9049bc7457f66c1596c5b78aec0dae4a9d
- https://kernel.dance/#6921ed9049bc7457f66c1596c5b78aec0dae4a9d
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/05/msg00005.html
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/05/msg00006.html
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/51384