CVE-2019-14283
Description
A vulnerability was found in the Linux kernel’s floppy disk driver implementation. A local attacker with access to the floppy device could call set_geometry in drivers/block/floppy.c, which does not validate the sect and head fields, causing an integer overflow and out-of-bounds read. This flaw may crash the system or allow an attacker to gather information causing subsequent successful attacks.
Mitigation
The kernel module named 'floppy' contains the affected code, this can be blacklisted using the standard blacklisting techniques or disabled in the systems BIOS. See https://access.redhat.com/solutions/41278 for how to blacklist a kernel module.
Virtualized guest systems can also remove the system from the guests configuration to ensure that the module does not load.
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 | 5.6 | 6.8 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Local | Physical | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | Low | Low | N/A |
| Privileges Required | Low | None | N/A |
| User Interaction | Required | None | N/A |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | N/A |
| Confidentiality | Low | High | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | High | N/A |
| Availability Impact | High | High | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.0/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Instability
This weakness can generally lead to undefined behavior and therefore crashes. When the calculated result is used for resource allocation, this weakness can cause too many (or too few) resources to be allocated, possibly enabling crashes if the product requests more resources than can be provided.
Integrity
Technical Impact: Modify Memory
If the value in question is important to data (as opposed to flow), simple data corruption has occurred. Also, if the overflow/wraparound results in other conditions such as buffer overflows, further memory corruption may occur.
Confidentiality,Availability,Access Control
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; Bypass Protection Mechanism
This weakness can sometimes trigger buffer overflows, which can be used to execute arbitrary code. This is usually outside the scope of the product's implicit security policy.
Availability,Other
Technical Impact: Alter Execution Logic; DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU)
If the overflow/wraparound occurs in a loop index variable, this could cause the loop to terminate at the wrong time - too early, too late, or not at all (i.e., infinite loops). With too many iterations, some loops could consume too many resources such as memory, file handles, etc., possibly leading to a crash or other DoS.
Access Control
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism
If integer values are used in security-critical decisions, such as calculating quotas or allocation limits, integer overflows can be used to cause an incorrect security decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
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