Denial of service in Linux kernel

1) Infinite loop

EUVDB-ID: #VU61272

Risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 4.8 [CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2020-36310

CWE-ID: CWE-835 - Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition ('Infinite Loop')

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a local user to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

The vulnerability exists due to infinite loop in set_memory_region_test in arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c. A local user can consume all available system resources and cause denial of service conditions.

Mitigation

Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Linux kernel: before 5.8.0

External links

http://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=e72436bc3a5206f95bb384e741154166ddb3202e
http://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/ChangeLog-5.8
http://www.debian.org/security/2022/dsa-5095

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.