Missing speculative execution protections in FreeBSD

1) Missing Protection Mechanism for Alternate Hardware Interface

EUVDB-ID: #VU82983

Risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 5.9 [CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2023-5370

CWE-ID: CWE-1299 - Missing Protection Mechanism for Alternate Hardware Interface

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a local user to compromise the affected system.

The vulnerability exists due to a missing check for CPU 0 on AArch64 hardware when deciding whether to use the Secure Monitor Call Calling Convention (SMCCC) mechanism on a given CPU. An attacker with physical access to the system can compromise the affected system.

Mitigation

Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

FreeBSD: 13.2

External links

http://security.FreeBSD.org/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-23:14.smccc.asc

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. The attacker should have physical access to the system in order to successfully exploit this vulnerability.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

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