Computer Security Global Security Mag Online anti virus spywares job oofers telecom and network security

Severity: 1/4

Consequences: denial of service of computer

Provenance: user shell

Means of attack: no proof of concept, no attack

Ability of attacker: expert (4/4)

Confidence: confirmed by the editor (5/5)

Diffusion of the vulnerable configuration: high (3/3)

Creation date: 30/06/2009

IMPACTED PRODUCTS

 Linux kernel

DESCRIPTION OF THE VULNERABILITY

The code of the KVM (Kernel Virtual Machine) uses the kvm_sregs structure to store Intel registers which are to be modified with KVM_SET_SREGS.

The CR3 register (kvm_sregs.cr3) contains the base address of the Page Directory Table, used for memory paging.

When the address indicated by CR3 is invalid, a NULL pointer is used by the gfn_to_rmap() function. This error leads to a denial of service.

An attacker inside a KVM guest system can therefore use the CR3 register in order to generate a denial of service.

CHARACTERISTICS

Identifiers: VIGILANCE-VUL-8830 http://vigilance.fr/vulnerability/Linux-kernel-denial-of-service-via-KVM-and-CR3-8830