CVE-2014-8481

Public Exploit

Description

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.

Category

4.9
CVSS
Severity: Medium
CVSS 2.0 •
EPSS 0.07%
Third-Party Advisory secunia.com
Affected: n/a n/a
Published at:
Updated at:

References

Link Tags
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1156615
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/a430c9166312e1aa3d80bce32374233bdbfeba32 exploit
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=a430c9166312e1aa3d80bce32374233bdbfeba32
http://secunia.com/advisories/62042 third party advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2014/10/23/7 mailing list exploit
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.kvm.devel/128427 mailing list

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the severity of CVE-2014-8481?
CVE-2014-8481 has been scored as a medium severity vulnerability.
How to fix CVE-2014-8481?
To fix CVE-2014-8481, make sure you are using an up-to-date version of the affected component(s) by checking the vendor release notes. As for now, there are no other specific guidelines available.
Is CVE-2014-8481 being actively exploited in the wild?
It is possible that CVE-2014-8481 is being exploited or will be exploited in a near future based on public information. According to its EPSS score, there is a ~0% probability that this vulnerability will be exploited by malicious actors in the next 30 days.
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