Vulnerability Details : CVE-2020-8834

KVM in the Linux kernel on Power8 processors has a conflicting use of HSTATE_HOST_R1 to store r1 state in kvmppc_hv_entry plus in kvmppc_{save,restore}_tm, leading to a stack corruption. Because of this, an attacker with the ability run code in kernel space of a guest VM can cause the host kernel to panic. There were two commits that, according to the reporter, introduced the vulnerability: f024ee098476 ("KVM: PPC: Book3S HV: Pull out TM state save/restore into separate procedures") 87a11bb6a7f7 ("KVM: PPC: Book3S HV: Work around XER[SO] bug in fake suspend mode") The former landed in 4.8, the latter in 4.17. This was fixed without realizing the impact in 4.18 with the following three commits, though it's believed the first is the only strictly necessary commit: 6f597c6b63b6 ("KVM: PPC: Book3S PR: Add guest MSR parameter for kvmppc_save_tm()/kvmppc_restore_tm()") 7b0e827c6970 ("KVM: PPC: Book3S HV: Factor fake-suspend handling out of kvmppc_save/restore_tm") 009c872a8bc4 ("KVM: PPC: Book3S PR: Move kvmppc_save_tm/kvmppc_restore_tm to separate file")
Published 2020-04-09 22:15:12
Updated 2022-10-07 15:43:07
Source Canonical Ltd.
View at NVD,   CVE.org

Products affected by CVE-2020-8834

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-8834

EPSS FAQ
0.05%
Probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days EPSS Score History
~ 21 %
Percentile, the proportion of vulnerabilities that are scored at or less

CVSS scores for CVE-2020-8834

Base Score Base Severity CVSS Vector Exploitability Score Impact Score Score Source First Seen
4.9
 MEDIUM AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C
3.9
6.9
 NIST
6.5
 MEDIUM CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
2.0
4.0
 NIST
6.5
 MEDIUM CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
2.0
4.0
 Canonical Ltd.

CWE ids for CVE-2020-8834

  • The product contains a code sequence that can run concurrently with other code, and the code sequence requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence that is operating concurrently.
    Assigned by: nvd@nist.gov (Primary)
  • A product performs a series of non-atomic actions to switch between contexts that cross privilege or other security boundaries, but a race condition allows an attacker to modify or misrepresent the product's behavior during the switch.
    Assigned by: security@ubuntu.com (Secondary)

References for CVE-2020-8834

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