CVE-2022-1789
Description
A flaw was found in KVM. With shadow paging enabled if INVPCID is executed with CR0.PG=0, the invlpg callback is not set, and the result is a NULL pointer dereference. This flaw allows a guest user to cause a kernel oops condition on the host, resulting in a denial of service.
Statement
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7 did not provide support for INVPCID in shadow paging mode and therefore are not affected by this issue.
Mitigation
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options don't meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.
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 | High | Low | N/A |
| Privileges Required | Low | None | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | None | N/A |
| Scope | Changed | Unchanged | N/A |
| Confidentiality | None | High | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | High | N/A |
| Availability Impact | High | High | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.1/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
NULL pointer dereferences usually result in the failure of the process unless exception handling (on some platforms) is available and implemented. Even when exception handling is being used, it can still be very difficult to return the software to a safe state of operation.
Integrity,Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; Read Memory; Modify Memory
In rare circumstances, when NULL is equivalent to the 0x0 memory address and privileged code can access it, then writing or reading memory is possible, which may lead to code execution.
Acknowledgements
Red Hat would like to thank Gaoning Pan (Zhejiang University), Qiuhao Li (Harbin Institute of Technology), and Yongkang Jia (Zhejiang University) for reporting this issue.
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