Title: EGI SVG 'ADVISORY' [TLP:WHITE] 'HIGH' risk Kernel Side-Channel Attack
using Speculative Store Bypass - CVE-2018-3639 [EGI-SVG-CVE-2018-3639]
Date: 2018-05-24
Updated:
Affected software and risk
==========================
HIGH risk vulnerability in modern microprocessors allowing Kernel Side-Channel
Attack using Speculative Store Bypass.
Package : Intel and other microprocessors
CVE ID : CVE-2018-3639, CVE-2018-3640
This vulnerability allows a malicious, unprivileged user to use this flaw to
read privileged system memory and/or memory outside of a sandboxed environment.
[R 1], [R 2], [R 3], [R 4]
Actions required/recommended
============================
Sites should apply the software patches providing mitigation when they are
available for the operating system in use.
Note that these operating system patches only provide mitigation, they do not
guarantee to fully eliminate the vulnerability.
Sites should also apply hardware 'microcode' when they are available for the
microprocessors in use.
Component installation information
==================================
For RedHat enterprise Linux see [R 5]
For Scientific Linux see [R 6]
For CentOS see [R 7]
For Ubuntu see [R 8]
For Debian see [R 9] (Mitigation patch not available yet)
Also see chip manufacturers sites for updates. At present none are available.
Information including which packages have mitigation, and links other
information including chip manufacturers updates will be placed on the EGI SVG
wiki at:--
URL: https://advisories.egi.eu/Spectre_4th_Variant
More information
================
CVE-2018-3639 has been described as Variant 4: Speculative Store Bypass.
CVE-2018-3640 has been described as Variant 3a: Rogue System Register Read.
RedHat states that 'To fully mitigate this vulnerability, system administrators
must apply both hardware microcode updates and software patches that enable new
functionality.'
Information on microcode updates is expected to be provided by the
manufacturers.
TLP and URL
===========
** WHITE information - Unlimited distribution
- see https://go.egi.eu/tlp for distribution restrictions **
URL: https://advisories.egi.eu/Advisory-SVG-CVE-2018-3639
Minor updates may be made without re-distribution to the sites
Comments
========
Comments or questions should be sent to svg-rat at mailman.egi.eu
If you find or become aware of another vulnerability which is relevant to EGI
you may report it by e-mail to
report-vulnerability at egi.eu
the EGI Software Vulnerability Group will take a look according to the
procedure defined in [R 10]
Note that this has been updated and the latest version approved by the
Operations Management Board in November 2017
References
==========
[R 1] https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-3639
[R 2] https://access.redhat.com/security/vulnerabilities/ssbd
[R 3] https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/speculative-store-bypass-explained-what-it-how-it-works
[R 4] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/21/spectre_meltdown_v4_microsoft_google/
[R 5] https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2018-3639
[R 6] https://www.scientificlinux.org/category/sl-errata/slsa-20181632-1/
[R 7] https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2018-May/date.html
[R 8] http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-security/cve/2018/CVE-2018-3639.html
[R 9] https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-3639
[R 10] https://documents.egi.eu/public/ShowDocument?docid=3145
Credit
======
SVG was alerted to this vulnerability by Vincent Brillault
Timeline
========
Yyyy-mm-dd [EGI-SVG-2018-CVE-2018-3639]
2018-05-22 SVG alerted to this issue by Vincent Brillault
2018-05-22 Acknowledgement from the EGI SVG to the reporter
2018-05-22 Investigation of vulnerability and relevance to EGI carried out by
(as appropriate)
2018-05-23 EGI SVG Risk Assessment completed
2018-05-24 Advisory sent to sites
Context
=======
This advisory has been prepared as part of the effort to fulfil EGI SVG's
purpose "To minimize the risk to the EGI infrastructure arising from software
vulnerabilities"
The risk is that assessed by the group, according to the EGI SVG issue handling
procedure [R 10] in the context of how the software is used in the EGI
infrastructure. It is the opinion of the group, we do not guarantee it to be
correct. The risk may also be higher or lower in other deployments depending on
how the software is used.
Others may re-use this information provided they:-
1) Respect the provided TLP classification
2) Credit the EGI https://www.egi.eu/ Software Vulnerability Group
On behalf of the EGI SVG,