#VU15177 Improper input validation in Linux kernel - CVE-2018-18021

Vulnerability identifier: #VU15177

Vulnerability risk: Low

CVSSv4.0: 4.3 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear]

CVE-ID: CVE-2018-18021

CWE-ID: CWE-20

Exploitation vector: Local

Exploit availability: No

Vulnerable software:
Linux kernel
Operating systems & Components / Operating system

Vendor: Linux Foundation

Description

The vulnerability allows a local attacker to cause DoS condition on the target system.

The vulnerability exists in the arch/arm64/kvm/guest.c source code file due to the mishandling of the sanity check for the KVM_SET_ON_REG IOCTL function. A local attacker can create a malicious Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM), cause an illegal exception return and cause the system to crash.

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Linux kernel: 4.15 rc1 - 4.18.12

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External links
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=2a3f93459d689d990b3ecf...

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Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

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