CVE-2018-5407

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DescriptionStatementMitigationAdditional informationAffected PackagesCVSS Score DetailsWeakness (CWE)AcknowledgementsFAQ

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.

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.

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.

Additional information

  • Bugzilla 1645695: openssl: Side-channel vulnerability on SMT/Hyper-Threading architectures (PortSmash)
  • CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
  • FAQ: Frequently asked questions about CVE-2018-5407

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

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 HatNVD

CVSS v3 Base Score

4.8

4.7

Attack Vector

Physical

Local

Attack Complexity

High

High

Privileges Required

Low

Low

User Interaction

None

None

Scope

Changed

Unchanged

Confidentiality Impact

High

High

Integrity Impact

None

None

Availability Impact

None

None

CVSS v3 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

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Red Hat's CVSS v3 score or Impact different from other vendors?

For open source software shipped by multiple vendors, the CVSS base scores may vary for each vendor's version depending on the version they ship, how they ship it, the platform, and even how the software is compiled. This makes scoring of vulnerabilities difficult for third-party vulnerability databases such as NVD that only provide a single CVSS base score for each vulnerability. Red Hat scores reflect how a vulnerability affects our products specifically.

For more information, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/762393.

My product is listed as "Under investigation" or "Affected", when will Red Hat release a fix for this vulnerability?

  • "Under investigation" doesn't necessarily mean that the product is affected by this vulnerability. It only means that our Analysis Team is still working on determining whether the product is affected and how it is affected.
  • The term "Affected" means that our Analysis team has determined that this product, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 or OpenShift Container Platform 4, is affected by this vulnerability and a fix may be released to address this issue in the near future. This includes all minor releases of this product unless noted otherwise in the Statement text.

What can I do if my product is listed as "Will not fix"?

A "will not fix" status means that a fix for an affected product version is not planned or not possible due to complexity, which may create additional risk.

Available options depend mostly on the Impact of the vulnerability and the current Life Cycle phase of your product. Overall, you have the following options:
  • Upgrade to a supported product version that includes a fix for this vulnerability (recommended).
  • Apply a mitigation (if one exists).
  • Open a support case to request a prioritization of releasing a fix for this vulnerability.

What can I do if my product is listed as "Fix deferred"?

A deferred status means that a fix for an affected product version is not guaranteed due to higher-priority development work.

Available options depend mostly on the Impact of the vulnerability and the current Life Cycle phase of your product. Overall, you have the following options:
  • Apply a mitigation (if one exists).
  • Open a support case to request a prioritization of releasing a fix for this vulnerability.
  • Red Hat Engineering focuses on addressing high-priority issues based on their complexity or limited lifecycle support. Therefore, lower-priority issues will not receive immediate fixes.

What is a mitigation?

A mitigation is an action that can be taken to reduce the impact of a security vulnerability, without deploying any fixes.

I have a Red Hat product but it is not in the above list, is it affected?

The listed products were found to include one or more of the components that this vulnerability affects. These products underwent a thorough evaluation to determine their affectedness by this vulnerability. Note that layered products (such as container-based offerings) that consume affected components from any of the products listed in this table may be affected and are not represented.

Why is my security scanner reporting my product as vulnerable to this vulnerability even though my product version is fixed or not affected?

In order to maintain code stability and compatibility, Red Hat usually does not rebase packages to entirely new versions. Instead, we backport fixes and new features to an older version of the package we distribute. This can result in some security scanners that only consider the package version to report the package as vulnerable. To avoid this, we suggest that you use an approved vulnerability scanner from our Red Hat Vulnerability Scanner Certification program.

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