#VU28403 Information disclosure in Linux kernel - CVE-2019-15031

Vulnerability identifier: #VU28403

Vulnerability risk: Low

CVSSv4.0: 1.1 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear]

CVE-ID: CVE-2019-15031

CWE-ID: CWE-200

Exploitation vector: Local

Exploit availability: No

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

Vendor: Linux Foundation

Description

The vulnerability allows a local authenticated user to #BASIC_IMPACT#.

In the Linux kernel through 5.2.14 on the powerpc platform, a local user can read vector registers of other users' processes via an interrupt. To exploit the venerability, a local user starts a transaction (via the hardware transactional memory instruction tbegin) and then accesses vector registers. At some point, the vector registers will be corrupted with the values from a different local Linux process, because MSR_TM_ACTIVE is misused in arch/powerpc/kernel/process.c.

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Linux kernel: 4.19 - 4.19.72, 5.0 - 5.0.21, 5.1 rc1 - 5.1.21, 5.2 - 5.2.21

---

External links
https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.19.73
https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/ChangeLog-5.2.15
https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/ChangeLog-5.3

---

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.