CVE-2021-38198
Description
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel, where it incorrectly computes the access permissions of a shadow page. This issue leads to a missing guest protection page fault.
Statement
The issue is rated as having Low impact because the issue is not present when hardware-assisted paging (also known as nested paging and Second Level Address Translation) is enabled. Hardware-assisted paging is enabled by default for CPUs that support it. Any realistic real-life virtualization scenario benefits greatly from hardware assisted paging speed up, so deployments without hardware-assisted paging are very rare.
Mitigation
Do not disable hardware-assisted paging (also known as nested paging and Second Level Address Translation) on your hosts. The default is on.
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).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 6.4 | 5.5 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Local | Local | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | High | Low | N/A |
| Privileges Required | High | Low | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | None | N/A |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | N/A |
| Confidentiality | High | None | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | High | None | N/A |
| Availability Impact | High | High | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Application Data; Read Files or Directories
An attacker may be able to read sensitive information from the associated resource, such as credentials or configuration information stored in a file.
Access Control
Technical Impact: Gain Privileges or Assume Identity
An attacker may be able to modify critical properties of the associated resource to gain privileges, such as replacing a world-writable executable with a Trojan horse.
Integrity,Other
Technical Impact: Modify Application Data; Other
An attacker may be able to destroy or corrupt critical data in the associated resource, such as deletion of records from a database.
Frequently Asked Questions
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