CVE-2023-1998
Spectre v2 SMT mitigations problem in Linux kernel
At a glance
- Source
- NVD
- EPSS
- EPSS 1.38 % · percentile 72 ()
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Published
- Updated
- Assigner
- NVD status
- Modified
Description
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.
Weaknesses (CWE)
- CWE-1303 — Non-Transparent Sharing of Microarchitectural Resources
- CWE-203 — Observable Discrepancy
References
- 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
Scores
| Version | Score | Vector | Scored by |
|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS 3.1 | MEDIUM 5.6 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N | |
| CVSS 3.1 | MEDIUM 5.6 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N | NVD · cve-coordination@google.com (Secondary) |
| CVSS 3.1 | MEDIUM 5.6 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N | NVD · nvd@nist.gov (Primary) |
European references
- ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2023-24178
- GCVE · GCVE-0-2023-1998
CERT-FR advisories
- CERTFR-2024-AVI-0506 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans Juniper Secure Analytics · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2024-AVI-0497 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans le noyau Linux de Red Hat · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2024-AVI-0385 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits IBM · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2024-AVI-0352 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans le noyau Linux d'Ubuntu · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2023-AVI-0957 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans le noyau Linux de RedHat · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2023-AVI-0840 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans le noyau Linux de RedHat · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2023-AVI-0623 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans le noyau Linux de RedHat · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2023-AVI-0599 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans le noyau Linux d'Ubuntu · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2023-AVI-0578 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans le noyau Linux de SUSE · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2023-AVI-0544 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans le noyau Linux de SUSE · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2023-AVI-0543 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans le noyau Linux d'Ubuntu · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2023-AVI-0512 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans le noyau Linux d'Ubuntu · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2023-AVI-0488 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans le noyau Linux d'Ubuntu · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2023-AVI-0395 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans le noyau Linux de SUSE · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2023-AVI-0392 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans le noyau Linux de DebianLTS · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2023-AVI-0382 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans le noyau Linux de SUSE · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
- CERTFR-2023-AVI-0333 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans le noyau Linux d'Ubuntu · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
Affected configurations (NVD CPE)
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*< 6.3cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Affected products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
| Linux · Linux Kernel | affected 0 < 6.3 |
Sources
| Source | Licence |
|---|---|
| CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5) | CVE Program Terms of Use |
| EPSS (FIRST.org) | FIRST — attribution requested |
| ENISA EUVD | ENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged |
| CERT-FR (ANSSI) | Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0 |
| NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feeds | Public domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD |