SOC status:Duty analyst on shift

UK Cyber Defence
VulnerabilityModified

CVE-2017-1000405

Nevertheless, it does allow us to overwrite read-only huge pages.

HIGH 7.0EPSS 2.84%

Does this matter?

High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (2.84%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.

Description

The Linux Kernel versions 2.6.38 through 4.14 have a problematic use of pmd_mkdirty() in the touch_pmd() function inside the THP implementation. touch_pmd() can be reached by get_user_pages(). In such case, the pmd will become dirty. This scenario breaks the new can_follow_write_pmd()'s logic - pmd can become dirty without going through a COW cycle. This bug is not as severe as the original "Dirty cow" because an ext4 file (or any other regular file) cannot be mapped using THP. Nevertheless, it does allow us to overwrite read-only huge pages. For example, the zero huge page and sealed shmem files can be overwritten (since their mapping can be populated using THP). Note that after the first write page-fault to the zero page, it will be replaced with a new fresh (and zeroed) thp.

CVSS 3.1
7.0 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS
2.84% probability · 86th percentile
CISA KEV
Not listed
Weakness
CWE-362
Affected
linux/linux kernel
Source
cve@mitre.org

References

Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.