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Amazon Linux AMI : kernel (ALAS-2018-1038) (Spectre)

medium Nessus Plugin ID 110461

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Synopsis

The remote Amazon Linux AMI host is missing a security update.

Description

An industry-wide issue was found in the way many modern microprocessor designs have implemented speculative execution of Load & Store instructions (a commonly used performance optimization). It relies on the presence of a precisely-defined instruction sequence in the privileged code as well as the fact that memory read from address to which a recent memory write has occurred may see an older value and subsequently cause an update into the microprocessor's data cache even for speculatively executed instructions that never actually commit (retire). As a result, an unprivileged attacker could use this flaw to read privileged memory by conducting targeted cache side-channel attacks.(CVE-2018-3639)

By mmap()ing a FUSE-backed file onto a process's memory containing command line arguments (or environment strings), an attacker can cause utilities from psutils or procps (such as ps, w) or any other program which makes a read() call to the /proc/<pid>/cmdline (or /proc/<pid>/environ) files to block indefinitely (denial of service) or for some controlled time (as a synchronization primitive for other attacks).(CVE-2018-1120)

An industry-wide issue was found in the way many modern microprocessor designs have implemented speculative execution of instructions past bounds check. The flaw relies on the presence of a precisely-defined instruction sequence in the privileged code and the fact that memory writes occur to an address which depends on the untrusted value. Such writes cause an update into the microprocessor's data cache even for speculatively executed instructions that never actually commit (retire). As a result, an unprivileged attacker could use this flaw to influence speculative execution and/or read privileged memory by conducting targeted cache side-channel attacks.(CVE-2018-3693)

Solution

Run 'yum update kernel' then reboot the instance to update your system.

See Also

https://alas.aws.amazon.com/ALAS-2018-1038.html

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 110461

File Name: ala_ALAS-2018-1038.nasl

Version: 1.11

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 6/12/2018

Updated: 9/24/2024

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 4.7

Temporal Score: 3.7

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:N/A:N

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2018-3693

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.6

Temporal Score: 5.1

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:perf, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:perf-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel-tools-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel-tools-devel, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel-tools, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel-devel, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel-headers, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel-debuginfo-common-i686, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64, cpe:/o:amazon:linux

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/AmazonLinux/release, Host/AmazonLinux/rpm-list

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 6/8/2018

Vulnerability Publication Date: 5/22/2018

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2018-1120, CVE-2018-3639, CVE-2018-3693

ALAS: 2018-1038

IAVA: 2018-A-0174-S