SB2019050820 - Red Hat Virtualization update for side-channel attack in SMT processors
Published: May 8, 2019 Updated: February 3, 2021
Security Bulletin ID
SB2019050820
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.