Privilege escalation in Linux kernel - CVE-2018-12904
Published: June 29, 2018
Vulnerability identifier: #VU13516
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4.0: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/U:Clear
CVE-ID: CVE-2018-12904
CWE-ID: CWE-264
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vendor: Linux Foundation
Affected software:
Linux kernel
Linux kernel
Detailed vulnerability description
The vulnerability allows a local attacker to gain elevated privileges on the target system.
The vulnerability exists due to insufficient checking of the current privilege level (CPL) for Virtual Machine Extensions (VMX) instructions by the arch/x86/kvm/vmx.c source code file when nested virtualization is used. A local attacker can cause a targeted L1 Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) guest to exit and gain elevated privileges on the targeted L1 system, which could be used to conduct further attacks.
How to mitigate CVE-2018-12904
Install update from vendor's website.