CVE-2018-5407
Description
A microprocessor side-channel vulnerability was found on SMT (e.g, Hyper-Threading) architectures. An attacker running a malicious process on the same core of the processor as the victim process can extract certain secret information.
Statement
This is a timing side-channel flaw on processors which implement SMT/Hyper-Threading architectures. It can result in leakage of secret data in applications such as OpenSSL that has secret dependent control flow at any granularity level. In order to exploit this flaw, the attacker needs to run a malicious process on the same core of the processor as the victim process.
Mitigation
At this time Red Hat Engineering is working on patches for openssl package in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 to address this issue. Until fixes are available, users are advised to review the guidance supplied in the L1 Terminal Fault vulnerability article: https://access.redhat.com/security/vulnerabilities/L1TF and decide what their exposure across shared CPU threads are and act accordingly.
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 | 4.8 | 4.7 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Physical | Local | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | High | High | N/A |
| Privileges Required | Low | Low | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | None | N/A |
| Scope | Changed | Unchanged | N/A |
| Confidentiality | High | High | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | None | N/A |
| Availability Impact | None | None | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.0/AV:P/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Application Data
Acknowledgements
Red Hat would like to thank Alejandro Cabrera Aldaya (Universidad Tecnologica de la Habana CUJAE; Cuba), Billy Bob Brumley, Cesar Pereida Garcia, Nicola Tuveri (Tampere University of Technology; Finland), and Sohaib ul Hassan for reporting this issue.
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