SOC status:Duty analyst on shift

UK Cyber Defence
VulnerabilityModified

CVE-2018-8897

A statement in the System Programming Guide of the Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual (SDM) was mishandled in the development of some or all operating-system kernels, resulting in unexpected behavior for #DB exceptions that are…

EXPLOIT ×2 ✓HIGH 7.8EPSS 18.5%

Does this matter?

EPSS puts the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days at 18.5%, higher than 97% of all known CVEs. Patch or mitigate before the next change window.

Description

A statement in the System Programming Guide of the Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual (SDM) was mishandled in the development of some or all operating-system kernels, resulting in unexpected behavior for #DB exceptions that are deferred by MOV SS or POP SS, as demonstrated by (for example) privilege escalation in Windows, macOS, some Xen configurations, or FreeBSD, or a Linux kernel crash. The MOV to SS and POP SS instructions inhibit interrupts (including NMIs), data breakpoints, and single step trap exceptions until the instruction boundary following the next instruction (SDM Vol. 3A; section 6.8.3). (The inhibited data breakpoints are those on memory accessed by the MOV to SS or POP to SS instruction itself.) Note that debug exceptions are not inhibited by the interrupt enable (EFLAGS.IF) system flag (SDM Vol. 3A; section 2.3). If the instruction following the MOV to SS or POP to SS instruction is an instruction like SYSCALL, SYSENTER, INT 3, etc. that transfers control to the operating system at CPL < 3, the debug exception is delivered after the transfer to CPL < 3 is complete. OS kernels may not expect this order of events and may therefore experience unexpected behavior when it occurs.

CVSS 3.0
7.8 HIGHCVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS
18.48% probability · 97th percentile
Public exploits
2 in Exploit-DB · verified · first 22 May 2018
CISA KEV
Not listed
Weakness
CWE-362
Affected
debian/debian linux · canonical/ubuntu linux · redhat/enterprise linux server · redhat/enterprise linux workstation · redhat/enterprise virtualization manager · citrix/xenserver · synology/skynas · synology/diskstation manager · apple/mac os x · xen/xen · freebsd/freebsd
Source
cve@mitre.org
EPSS trend
0%20%40%21 September 2026: 38.30%22 September 2026: 18.48%27 October 2026: 18.48%21 September 202627 October 2026

EPSS moved from 38.3% on 21 September 2026 to 18.5% on 27 October 2026. The dashed line is the ten per cent mark our analysts treat as “patch before the next change window”.

Public exploits (2)

Entries in Exploit-DB that cite this CVE. Links go to the Exploit-DB page and to the file in the public repository; nothing is hosted here. A verified tick means the Exploit-DB team confirmed the exploit works against the stated version.

EDB-IDTitleTypePublishedVerified
EDB-45024source ↗Microsoft Windows - POP/MOV SS Local Privilege Elevation (Metasploit)windows · Metasploitlocal13 July 2018yes
EDB-44697source ↗Microsoft Windows - 'POP/MOV SS' Privilege Escalationwindows · Can Bölüklocal22 May 2018yes

References

Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.