CVE-2021-29657
Description
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel. A KVM guest on AMD can launch a nested guest without the Intercept VMRUN control bit by exploiting a TOCTOU vulnerability in nested_svm_vmrun. A malicious guest could use this flaw to gain unrestricted access to host MSRs, possibly leading to guest-to-host escape scenario.
Statement
The nested virtualization feature is not enabled by default up to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4. Most importantly, Red Hat currently provides nested virtualization only as a Technology Preview, and is therefore unsupported for production use. For additional details please see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/21101 and https://access.redhat.com/support/offerings/techpreview.
Mitigation
This vulnerability can be mitigated by disabling the nested virtualization feature:
# modprobe -r kvm_amd
# modprobe kvm_amd nested=0
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 | 7.8 | 7.4 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Local | Local | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | High | High | N/A |
| Privileges Required | Low | None | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | None | N/A |
| Scope | Changed | Unchanged | N/A |
| Confidentiality | High | High | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | High | 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:H/I:H/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Red Hat CVSS v3 Score Explanation
Privileges are required inside the guest to launch a nested guest (PR:L). The malicious guest is able to access host MSRs by exploiting this flaw, hence Scope Changed (S:C).
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Integrity,Other
Technical Impact: Alter Execution Logic; Unexpected State
The attacker can gain access to otherwise unauthorized resources.
Integrity,Other
Technical Impact: Modify Application Data; Modify Files or Directories; Modify Memory; Other
Race conditions such as this kind may be employed to gain read or write access to resources which are not normally readable or writable by the user in question.
Integrity,Other
Technical Impact: Other
The resource in question, or other resources (through the corrupted one), may be changed in undesirable ways by a malicious user.
Non-Repudiation
Technical Impact: Hide Activities
If a file or other resource is written in this method, as opposed to in a valid way, logging of the activity may not occur.
Non-Repudiation,Other
Technical Impact: Other
In some cases it may be possible to delete files a malicious user might not otherwise have access to, such as log files.
Other
Technical Impact: Unexpected State
The product may perform invalid actions when the resource is in an unexpected state.
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