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Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime

CVE-2017-2596

Severity Medium
Score 6.5/10

Summary

The nested_vmx_check_vmptr function in arch/x86/kvm/vmx.c in the Linux kernel through 4.9.8 improperly emulates the VMXON instruction, which allows KVM L1 guest OS users to cause a denial of service (host OS memory consumption) by leveraging the mishandling of page references.

  • LOW
  • LOCAL
  • NONE
  • CHANGED
  • NONE
  • LOW
  • NONE
  • HIGH

CWE-772 - Missing Release Of Resource After Effective Lifetime

'Missing release of resource after effective lifetime' is a weakness that occurs when software doesn't sufficiently release a resource (e.g. memory, CPU, disk space, etc.) after it is used. If not addressed, attackers can launch a denial of service attack (by allocating a resource and not releasing it).

References

Advisory Timeline

  • Published