CVE-2018-18021 Privilege escalation in n/a

High 7.1 Published Updated

A flaw in Linux kernel KVM on arm64 allows attackers with VM creation privileges to redirect hypervisor control flow, leading to privilege escalation or 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-2018-18021?

CVE-2018-18021 is a high-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 7 Oct 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

arch/arm64/kvm/guest.c in KVM in the Linux kernel before 4.18.12 on the arm64 platform mishandles the KVM_SET_ON_REG ioctl. This is exploitable by attackers who can create virtual machines. An attacker can arbitrarily redirect the hypervisor flow of control (with full register control). An attacker can also cause a denial of service (hypervisor panic) via an illegal exception return. This occurs because of insufficient restrictions on userspace access to the core register file, and because PSTATE.M validation does not prevent unintended execution modes.

Weakness: CWE-20

Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-18021?

It affects 3 products.

Products include Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2018-18021?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2018-18021 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-18021 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Canonical Ubuntu Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2018-18021, GHSA-6vp5-5gv4-mcqp, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-18021.

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