Synopsis
The remote Red Hat host is missing a security update for kvm.
Description
The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the RHSA-2009:1465 advisory.
KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on AMD64 and Intel 64 systems. KVM is a Linux kernel module built for the standard Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernel.
The kvm_emulate_hypercall() implementation was missing a check for the Current Privilege Level (CPL). A local, unprivileged user in a virtual machine could use this flaw to cause a local denial of service or escalate their privileges within that virtual machine. (CVE-2009-3290)
This update also fixes the following bugs:
* non-maskable interrupts (NMI) were not supported on systems with AMD processors. As a consequence, Windows Server 2008 R2 guests running with more than one virtual CPU assigned on systems with AMD processors would hang at the Windows shut down screen when a restart was attempted. This update adds support for NMI filtering on systems with AMD processors, allowing clean restarts of Windows Server 2008 R2 guests running with multiple virtual CPUs. (BZ#520694)
* significant performance issues for guests running 64-bit editions of Windows. This update improves performance for guests running 64-bit editions of Windows. (BZ#521793)
* Windows guests may have experienced time drift. (BZ#521794)
* removing the Red Hat VirtIO Ethernet Adapter from a guest running Windows Server 2008 R2 caused KVM to crash. With this update, device removal should not cause this issue. (BZ#524557)
All KVM users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to resolve these issues. Note: The procedure in the Solution section must be performed before this update takes effect.
Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 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 RHEL kvm package based on the guidance in RHSA-2009:1465.
Plugin Details
File Name: redhat-RHSA-2009-1465.nasl
Agent: unix
Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Nessus
Risk Information
Vendor
Vendor Severity: Important
Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C
Vulnerability Information
CPE: p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kvm-tools, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:5, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kvm, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kmod-kvm, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kvm-qemu-img
Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/RedHat/release, Host/RedHat/rpm-list, Host/cpu
Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available
Patch Publication Date: 9/29/2009
Vulnerability Publication Date: 9/22/2009