CVE-2016-4578
Description
A vulnerability was found in Linux kernel. There is an information leak in file sound/core/timer.c of the latest mainline Linux kernel. The stack object “r1” has a total size of 32 bytes. Its field “event” and “val” both contain 4 bytes padding. These 8 bytes padding bytes are sent to user without being initialized.
Statement
This issue affects the Linux kernel packages as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6. This has been rated as having Low security impact and is not currently planned to be addressed in future updates. For additional information, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle: https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/.
This issue affects the Linux kernel packages as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and MRG-2. Future Linux kernel updates for the respective releases might address this issue.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v2 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 2.1 | 2.1 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Local | Local | N/A |
| Access Complexity | Low | Low | N/A |
| Authentication | None | None | N/A |
| Confidentiality Impact | Partial | Partial | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | None | N/A |
| Availability Impact | None | None | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
NVD: AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Memory; Read Application Data
When reusing a resource such as memory or a program variable, the original contents of that resource may not be cleared before it is sent to an untrusted party.
Access Control
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism
If security-critical decisions rely on a variable having a "0" or equivalent value, and the programming language performs this initialization on behalf of the programmer, then a bypass of security may occur.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
The uninitialized data may contain values that cause program flow to change in ways that the programmer did not intend. For example, if an uninitialized variable is used as an array index in C, then its previous contents may produce an index that is outside the range of the array, possibly causing a crash or an exit in other environments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not sure what something means? Check out our Security Glossary.
Want to get errata notifications? Sign up here.
