Description
Kernel Samepage Merging (KSM) in the Linux kernel 2.6.32 through 4.x does not prevent use of a write-timing side channel, which allows guest OS users to defeat the ASLR protection mechanism on other guest OS instances via a Cross-VM ASL INtrospection (CAIN) attack. NOTE: the vendor states "Basically if you care about this attack vector, disable deduplication." Share-until-written approaches for memory conservation among mutually untrusting tenants are inherently detectable for information disclosure, and can be classified as potentially misunderstood behaviors rather than vulnerabilities
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | linux | No fix yet | — |
| Debian 13 | linux | No fix yet | — |
| Debian 12 | linux | No fix yet | — |
References
- 76256 vdb-entry
- VU#935424 third-party-advisory
- http://www.antoniobarresi.com/files/cain_advisory.txt
- https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/BGAR-A2CNKG
- https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/BLUU-9ZAHZH
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1252096
- https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/woot15/woot15-paper-barresi.pdf