CVE-2018-10872 Denial of service in kernel

Medium 6.5 Published 10 Jul 2018 Updated 5 Aug 2024

An unprivileged user can crash the Linux kernel via a stack switch exception handling flaw, causing a denial of service.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Any signed-in user
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2018-10872?

CVE-2018-10872 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux, published on 10 Jul 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel handled exceptions delivered after a stack switch operation via Mov SS or Pop SS instructions. During the stack switch operation, processor does not deliver interrupts and exceptions, they are delivered once the first instruction after the stack switch is executed. An unprivileged system user could use this flaw to crash the system kernel resulting in DoS. This CVE-2018-10872 was assigned due to regression of CVE-2018-8897 in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.10 GA kernel. No other versions are affected by this CVE.

Weakness: CWE-119, CWE-250

Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-10872?

It affects 4 products.

Products include Redhat Enterprise Linux, Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktop, Redhat Enterprise Linux Server, Redhat Enterprise Linux Workstation.

How do I fix CVE-2018-10872?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2018-10872 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-10872 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Redhat Enterprise Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-652g-78m6-29wq.