CVE-2018-8897

HIGH

Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures - Privilege Escalation

Title source: llm

Description

A statement in the System Programming Guide of the Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual (SDM) was mishandled in the development of some or all operating-system kernels, resulting in unexpected behavior for #DB exceptions that are deferred by MOV SS or POP SS, as demonstrated by (for example) privilege escalation in Windows, macOS, some Xen configurations, or FreeBSD, or a Linux kernel crash. The MOV to SS and POP SS instructions inhibit interrupts (including NMIs), data breakpoints, and single step trap exceptions until the instruction boundary following the next instruction (SDM Vol. 3A; section 6.8.3). (The inhibited data breakpoints are those on memory accessed by the MOV to SS or POP to SS instruction itself.) Note that debug exceptions are not inhibited by the interrupt enable (EFLAGS.IF) system flag (SDM Vol. 3A; section 2.3). If the instruction following the MOV to SS or POP to SS instruction is an instruction like SYSCALL, SYSENTER, INT 3, etc. that transfers control to the operating system at CPL < 3, the debug exception is delivered after the transfer to CPL < 3 is complete. OS kernels may not expect this order of events and may therefore experience unexpected behavior when it occurs.

Exploits (7)

exploitdb WORKING POC VERIFIED
by Metasploit · rubylocalwindows
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/45024
exploitdb SUSPICIOUS VERIFIED
by Can Bölük · textlocalwindows
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44697
nomisec WORKING POC 421 stars
by can1357 · poc
https://github.com/can1357/CVE-2018-8897
nomisec WORKING POC 118 stars
by nmulasmajic · poc
https://github.com/nmulasmajic/syscall_exploit_CVE-2018-8897
nomisec WORKING POC 79 stars
by nmulasmajic · poc
https://github.com/nmulasmajic/CVE-2018-8897
nomisec WORKING POC 4 stars
by jiazhang0 · poc
https://github.com/jiazhang0/pop-mov-ss-exploit
metasploit WORKING POC EXCELLENT
by Nick Peterson, Nemanja Mulasmajic, Can Bölük <can1357>, bwatters-r7 · rubypoc
https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/exploits/windows/local/mov_ss.rb

References (48)

... and 28 more

Scores

CVSS v3 7.8
EPSS 0.2472
EPSS Percentile 96.2%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Details

CWE
CWE-362
Status published
Products (24)
apple/mac_os_x < 10.13.4
canonical/ubuntu_linux 14.04
canonical/ubuntu_linux 16.04
canonical/ubuntu_linux 17.10
citrix/xenserver 6.0.2
citrix/xenserver 6.2.0
citrix/xenserver 6.5
citrix/xenserver 7.0
citrix/xenserver 7.1
citrix/xenserver 7.2
... and 14 more
Published May 08, 2018
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026