CVE-2018-16866
Description
An out of bounds read was discovered in systemd-journald in the way it parses log messages that terminate with a colon ':'. A local attacker can use this flaw to disclose process memory data.
Statement
This issue affects the versions of systemd as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. Red Hat Product Security has rated this issue as having a security impact of Moderate. For additional information, refer to the Issue Severity Classification: https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/.
Red Hat Virtualization Hypervisor and Management Appliance include vulnerable versions of systemd. However, since exploitation requires local access and impact is restricted to information disclosure, this flaw is rated as having a security issue of Low. Future updates may 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 v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 4.3 | 3.3 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Adjacent Network | Local | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | Low | Low | N/A |
| Privileges Required | None | Low | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | None | N/A |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | N/A |
| Confidentiality | Low | Low | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | None | N/A |
| Availability Impact | None | None | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Memory
An attacker could get secret values such as cryptographic keys, PII, memory addresses, or other information that could be used in additional attacks.
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism
Out-of-bounds memory could contain memory addresses or other information that can be used to bypass ASLR and other protection mechanisms in order to improve the reliability of exploiting a separate weakness for code execution.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
An attacker could cause a segmentation fault or crash by causing memory to be read outside of the bounds of the buffer. This is especially likely when the code reads a variable amount of data and assumes that a sentinel exists to stop the read operation, such as a NUL in a string.
Other
Technical Impact: Varies by Context
The read operation could produce other undefined or unexpected results.
Acknowledgements
Red Hat would like to thank Qualys Research Labs for reporting this issue.
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