Upstream information
Description
** DISPUTED ** Kernel Samepage Merging (KSM) in the Linux kernel 2.6.32 through 4.x does not prevent use of a write-timing side channel, which allows guest OS users to defeat the ASLR protection mechanism on other guest OS instances via a Cross-VM ASL INtrospection (CAIN) attack. NOTE: the vendor states "Basically if you care about this attack vector, disable deduplication." Share-until-written approaches for memory conservation among mutually untrusting tenants are inherently detectable for information disclosure, and can be classified as potentially misunderstood behaviors rather than vulnerabilities.SUSE information
Overall state of this security issue: Ignore
This issue is currently rated as having low severity.
| National Vulnerability Database | |
|---|---|
| Base Score | 2.1 |
| Vector | AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N |
| Access Vector | Local |
| Access Complexity | Low |
| Authentication | None |
| Confidentiality Impact | Partial |
| Integrity Impact | None |
| Availability Impact | None |
Note from the SUSE Security Team
There is currently no code fix for this issue. A possible workaround is to disable memory de-duplication between VMs (by disabling the KSM feature in kvm). SUSE Bugzilla entry: 941252 [RESOLVED / WONTFIX] No SUSE Security Announcements cross referenced.Status of this issue by product and package
Please note that this evaluation state might be work in progress, incomplete or outdated. Also information for service packs in the LTSS phase is only included for issues meeting the LTSS criteria. If in doubt, feel free to contact us for clarification.
| Product(s) | Source package | State |
|---|---|---|
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 SP3 | kernel-source | Ignore |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 SP4 | kernel-source | Ignore |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3 | kernel-source | Ignore |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 | kernel-source | Ignore |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMWare 11 SP3 | kernel-source | Ignore |
