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
Metrics
CVSS 3.1 3.3/10
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:NWeakness enumeration
Affected software
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| n/a | n/a | n/a |
References
- http://www.antoniobarresi.com/files/cain_advisory.txtTechnical Description, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/935424Third Party Advisory, US Government Resource
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/76256Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1252096Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/BGAR-A2CNKGThird Party Advisory, US Government Resource
- https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/BLUU-9ZAHZHThird Party Advisory, US Government Resource
- https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/woot15/woot15-paper-barresi.pdfTechnical Description, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.antoniobarresi.com/files/cain_advisory.txtTechnical Description, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/935424Third Party Advisory, US Government Resource
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/76256Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1252096Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/BGAR-A2CNKGThird Party Advisory, US Government Resource
- https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/BLUU-9ZAHZHThird Party Advisory, US Government Resource
- https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/woot15/woot15-paper-barresi.pdfTechnical Description, Third Party Advisory
Timeline
- Published
- Mar 3, 2017
- Last modified
- Jun 17, 2026
- NVD status
- Modified