CVE-2020-8834

MEDIUM

Linux Kernel - Denial of Service via KVM HSTATE_HOST_R1 Stack Corruption

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

KVM in the Linux kernel on Power8 processors has a conflicting use of HSTATE_HOST_R1 to store r1 state in kvmppc_hv_entry plus in kvmppc_{save,restore}_tm, leading to a stack corruption. Because of this, an attacker with the ability run code in kernel space of a guest VM can cause the host kernel to panic. There were two commits that, according to the reporter, introduced the vulnerability: f024ee098476 ("KVM: PPC: Book3S HV: Pull out TM state save/restore into separate procedures") 87a11bb6a7f7 ("KVM: PPC: Book3S HV: Work around XER[SO] bug in fake suspend mode") The former landed in 4.8, the latter in 4.17. This was fixed without realizing the impact in 4.18 with the following three commits, though it's believed the first is the only strictly necessary commit: 6f597c6b63b6 ("KVM: PPC: Book3S PR: Add guest MSR parameter for kvmppc_save_tm()/kvmppc_restore_tm()") 7b0e827c6970 ("KVM: PPC: Book3S HV: Factor fake-suspend handling out of kvmppc_save/restore_tm") 009c872a8bc4 ("KVM: PPC: Book3S PR: Move kvmppc_save_tm/kvmppc_restore_tm to separate file")

References (5)

Core 5
Core References
Mailing List, Third Party Advisory x_refsource_misc
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/04/06/2
Third Party Advisory x_refsource_misc
https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-4318-1
Exploit, Third Party Advisory x_refsource_misc
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1867717
Third Party Advisory vendor-advisory x_refsource_ubuntu
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4318-1/
Mailing List, Third Party Advisory vendor-advisory x_refsource_suse
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-04/msg00035.html

Scores

CVSS v3 6.5
EPSS 0.0009
EPSS Percentile 25.4%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H

Details

CWE
CWE-368 CWE-362
Status published
Products (4)
canonical/ubuntu_linux 16.04
canonical/ubuntu_linux 18.04
linux/linux_kernel
opensuse/leap 15.1
Published Apr 09, 2020
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026