Medium CVSS 4.9

Overview

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.

Risk analysis

This vulnerability is rated 🟡 MEDIUM.

  • CVSS: 4.9 (MEDIUM)
  • Detected tags: none (tag impact: LOW)

Recommended actions:

  • Prioritize remediation based on business criticality and exposure.
  • Limit exposure and increase monitoring until fixed.

Recommended tools

Tags