The instruction decoder in arch/x86/kvm/emulate.c in the KVM subsystem in the Linux kernel before 3.18-rc2 does not properly handle invalid instructions, which allows guest OS users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and host OS crash) via a crafted application that triggers (1) an improperly fetched instruction or (2) an instruction that occupies too many bytes. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2014-8480.
The MITRE CVE dictionary describes this issue as:
Find out more about CVE-2014-8481 from the MITRE CVE dictionary dictionary and NIST NVD.
These issues do not affect Linux kernel packages as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6, 7 and Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2.
These issues do not affect kvm packages as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
NOTE: The following CVSS v2 metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
| Base Score | 6.1 |
|---|---|
| Base Metrics | AV:A/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C |
| Access Vector | Adjacent Network |
| Access Complexity | Low |
| Authentication | None |
| Confidentiality Impact | None |
| Integrity Impact | None |
| Availability Impact | Complete |
Find out more about Red Hat support for the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
| Platform | Package | State |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 | realtime-kernel | Not affected |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | kernel | Not affected |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | kernel | Not affected |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | kvm | Not affected |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | kernel | Not affected |
Vulmon