The SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 SP1 LTSS kernel was updated to receive various security and bugfixes. This update adds mitigations for various side channel attacks against modern CPUs that could disclose content of otherwise unreadable memory (bnc#1068032).
- CVE-2017-5753 / 'SpectreAttack': Local attackers on systems with modern CPUs featuring deep instruction pipelining could use attacker controllable speculative execution over code patterns in the Linux Kernel to leak content from otherwise not readable memory in the same address space, allowing retrieval of passwords, cryptographic keys and other secrets. This problem is mitigated by adding speculative fencing on affected code paths throughout the Linux kernel. This issue is addressed for the x86_64, IBM Power and IBM zSeries architecture.
- CVE-2017-5715 / 'SpectreAttack': Local attackers on systems with modern CPUs featuring branch prediction could use mispredicted branches to speculatively execute code patterns that in turn could be made to leak other non-readable content in the same address space, an attack similar to CVE-2017-5753. This problem is mitigated by disabling predictive branches, depending on CPU architecture either by firmware updates and/or fixes in the user-kernel privilege boundaries. This is done with help of Linux Kernel fixes on the Intel/AMD x86_64 and IBM zSeries architectures. On x86_64, this requires also updates of the CPU microcode packages, delivered in separate updates. For IBM Power and zSeries the required firmware updates are supplied over regular channels by IBM. As this feature can have a performance impact, it can be disabled using the 'nospec' kernel commandline option.
- CVE-2017-5754 / 'MeltdownAttack': Local attackers on systems with modern CPUs featuring deep instruction pipelining could use code patterns in userspace to speculative executive code that would read otherwise read protected memory, an attack similar to CVE-2017-5753. This problem is mitigated by unmapping the Linux Kernel from the user address space during user code execution, following a approach called 'KAISER'.
- CVE-2017-13167: An elevation of privilege vulnerability in the kernel sound timer. (bnc#1072876).
- CVE-2017-17450: net/netfilter/xt_osf.c in the Linux kernel did not require the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability for add_callback and remove_callback operations, which allowed local users to bypass intended access restrictions because the xt_osf_fingers data structure is shared across all net namespaces (bnc#1071695).
- CVE-2017-17449: The __netlink_deliver_tap_skb function in net/netlink/af_netlink.c in the Linux kernel through 4.14.4, when CONFIG_NLMON is enabled, did not restrict observations of Netlink messages to a single net namespace, which allowed local users to obtain sensitive information by leveraging the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability to sniff an nlmon interface for all Netlink activity on the system (bnc#1071694).
- CVE-2017-17448: net/netfilter/nfnetlink_cthelper.c in the Linux kernel did not require the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability for new, get, and del operations, which allowed local users to bypass intended access restrictions because the nfnl_cthelper_list data structure is shared across all net namespaces (bnc#1071693).
- CVE-2017-11600: net/xfrm/xfrm_policy.c in the Linux kernel through 4.12.3, when CONFIG_XFRM_MIGRATE is enabled, did not ensure that the dir value of xfrm_userpolicy_id is XFRM_POLICY_MAX or less, which allowed local users to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds access) or possibly have unspecified other impact via an XFRM_MSG_MIGRATE xfrm Netlink message (bnc#1050231).