SB2018112017 - Side-channel attack in openssl (Alpine package)
Published: November 20, 2018
Security Bulletin ID
SB2018112017
CSH Severity
Low
Patch available
YES
Number of vulnerabilities
1
Exploitation vector
Physical access
Highest impact
Information disclosure
Breakdown by Severity
- Low
- Medium
- High
- Critical
Description
This security bulletin contains information about 1 vulnerability.
1) Side-channel attack (CVE-ID: CVE-2018-5407)
CWE-ID: CWE-208 - Information Exposure Through Timing Discrepancy
CVSSv4: CVSS:4.0/AV:P/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/U:Clear
The vulnerability allows a physical attacker to obtain potentially sensitive information.
The vulnerability exists due to due to execution of engine sharing on SMT (e.g.Hyper-Threading) architectures when improper handling of information by the processor. A physical attacker can construct a timing side channel to hijack information from processes that are running in the same core.
Note: the vulnerability has been dubbed as PortSmash microarchitecture bug.
Remediation
Install update from vendor's website.
References
- https://git.alpinelinux.org/aports/commit/?id=0475e69802503af151dbf782f81d152d331b1083
- https://git.alpinelinux.org/aports/commit/?id=07b44d0ab16346876de776763036d792759e63b7
- https://git.alpinelinux.org/aports/commit/?id=20644e278a928af7b6ba3dab98e72de889abde1f
- https://git.alpinelinux.org/aports/commit/?id=71cc4cc38133a6c2666978dacfa9c2ab78b1eaec
- https://git.alpinelinux.org/aports/commit/?id=c1d3640cee748b8ff91fd6d4fb3102e9fb356ab2
- https://git.alpinelinux.org/aports/commit/?id=dfa7fc2a3c8a46d7b74d3622e61fdc3aacf7e2c5