Ubuntu 16.04 ESM / 18.04 ESM / 20.04 LTS / 22.04 LTS / 23.04 / 23.10 : Intel Microcode vulnerability (USN-6485-1)

high Nessus Plugin ID 185930

Synopsis

The remote Ubuntu host is missing a security update.

Description

The remote Ubuntu 16.04 ESM / 18.04 ESM / 20.04 LTS / 22.04 LTS / 23.04 / 23.10 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the USN-6485-1 advisory.

Benoit Morgan, Paul Grosen, Thais Moreira Hamasaki, Ke Sun, Alyssa Milburn, Hisham Shafi, Nir Shlomovich, Tavis Ormandy, Daniel Moghimi, Josh Eads, Salman Qazi, Alexandra Sandulescu, Andy Nguyen, Eduardo Vela, Doug Kwan, and Kostik Shtoyk discovered that some Intel(R) Processors did not properly handle certain sequences of processor instructions. A local attacker could possibly use this to cause a core hang (resulting in a denial of service), gain access to sensitive information or possibly escalate their privileges.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected intel-microcode package.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-6485-1

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 185930

File Name: ubuntu_USN-6485-1.nasl

Version: 1.8

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 11/16/2023

Updated: 8/27/2024

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

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: High

Score: 7.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.8

Temporal Score: 5

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2023-23583

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 6.8

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:23.10, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:23.04, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:esm, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:intel-microcode, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:esm

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/Ubuntu, Host/Ubuntu/release, Host/Debian/dpkg-l

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 11/17/2023

Vulnerability Publication Date: 11/9/2023

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2023-23583

USN: 6485-1