CVE-2020-8834

NameCVE-2020-8834
DescriptionKVM in the Linux kernel on Power8 processors has a conflicting use of HSTATE_HOST_R1 to store r1 state in kvmppc_hv_entry plus in kvmppc_{save,restore}_tm, leading to a stack corruption. Because of this, an attacker with the ability run code in kernel space of a guest VM can cause the host kernel to panic. There were two commits that, according to the reporter, introduced the vulnerability: f024ee098476 ("KVM: PPC: Book3S HV: Pull out TM state save/restore into separate procedures") 87a11bb6a7f7 ("KVM: PPC: Book3S HV: Work around XER[SO] bug in fake suspend mode") The former landed in 4.8, the latter in 4.17. This was fixed without realizing the impact in 4.18 with the following three commits, though it's believed the first is the only strictly necessary commit: 6f597c6b63b6 ("KVM: PPC: Book3S PR: Add guest MSR parameter for kvmppc_save_tm()/kvmppc_restore_tm()") 7b0e827c6970 ("KVM: PPC: Book3S HV: Factor fake-suspend handling out of kvmppc_save/restore_tm") 009c872a8bc4 ("KVM: PPC: Book3S PR: Move kvmppc_save_tm/kvmppc_restore_tm to separate file")
SourceCVE (at NVD; CERT, LWN, oss-sec, fulldisc, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Gentoo, SUSE bugzilla/CVE, GitHub advisories/code/issues, web search, more)

Vulnerable and fixed packages

The table below lists information on source packages.

Source PackageReleaseVersionStatus
linux (PTS)jessie, jessie (lts)3.16.84-1fixed
stretch (security)4.9.320-2fixed
stretch (lts), stretch4.9.320-3fixed
buster (security), buster, buster (lts)4.19.316-1fixed
bullseye5.10.223-1fixed
bullseye (security)5.10.226-1fixed
bookworm6.1.115-1fixed
bookworm (security)6.1.112-1fixed
trixie6.11.7-1fixed
sid6.11.9-1fixed

The information below is based on the following data on fixed versions.

PackageTypeReleaseFixed VersionUrgencyOriginDebian Bugs
linuxsourcewheezy(unfixed)end-of-life
linuxsourcejessie(not affected)
linuxsourcestretch(not affected)
linuxsource(unstable)4.18.6-1

Notes

[stretch] - linux <not-affected> (Vulnerable code not present)
[jessie] - linux <not-affected> (Vulnerable code not present)
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/04/06/2

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