Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2015-0239

The em_sysenter function in arch/x86/kvm/emulate.c in the Linux kernel before 3.18.5, when the guest OS lacks SYSENTER MSR initialization, allows guest OS users to gain guest OS privileges or cause a denial of service (guest OS crash) by triggering use of a 16-bit code segment for emulation of a SYSENTER instruction.

Security Impact Summary

CVE-2015-0239 is a security vulnerability that . Impacting 7 products from linux, from canonical, from debian and 4 others, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

First disclosed in 2015, this vulnerability was reported during a period defined by widespread IoT adoption challenges, mobile security concerns, and the emergence of advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques. Contemporary mitigation strategies focused on secure development practices and third-party component vetting.

Published

2015-03-02T11:59:04.693

Last Modified

2025-04-12T10:46:40.837

Status

Deferred

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv2: 4.4 (MEDIUM)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

  • Access Vector: LOCAL
  • Access Complexity: MEDIUM
  • Authentication: NONE
  • Confidentiality Impact: PARTIAL
  • Integrity Impact: PARTIAL
  • Availability Impact: PARTIAL
Exploitability Score

3.4

Impact Score

6.4

Weaknesses
  • Type: Primary
    CWE-269
Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Operating System linux linux_kernel < 3.18.5 Yes
Operating System canonical ubuntu_linux 12.04 Yes
Operating System canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 Yes
Operating System canonical ubuntu_linux 14.10 Yes
Operating System debian debian_linux 7.0 Yes
Operating System debian debian_linux 8.0 Yes
Operating System oracle linux 5 Yes
Operating System oracle linux 7 Yes
Operating System redhat enterprise_linux_desktop 6.0 Yes
Operating System redhat enterprise_linux_server 6.0 Yes
Operating System redhat enterprise_linux_workstation 6.0 Yes
References

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For linux's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.