Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2015-2877

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

Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a LOW severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 3.3, requiring local system access to exploit with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts limited data confidentiality, for affected systems. Impacting 2 products from linux, from redhat organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

First disclosed in 2017, 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

2017-03-03T11:59:00.147

Last Modified

2025-04-20T01:37:25.860

Status

Deferred

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 3.3 (LOW)

CVSSv2 Vector

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

Access Vector: LOCAL
Access Complexity: LOW
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: PARTIAL
Integrity Impact: NONE
Availability Impact: NONE

Exploitability Score

3.9

Impact Score

2.9

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-200

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Operating System	linux	linux_kernel	≤ 4.20.15	Yes
Operating System	redhat	enterprise_linux	4.0	Yes
Operating System	redhat	enterprise_linux	5.0	Yes
Operating System	redhat	enterprise_linux	6.0	Yes
Operating System	redhat	enterprise_linux	7.0	Yes

References

http://www.antoniobarresi.com/files/cain_advisory.txt Technical Description, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/935424 Third Party Advisory, US Government Resource ([email protected])
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/76256 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry ([email protected])
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1252096 Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/BGAR-A2CNKG Third Party Advisory, US Government Resource ([email protected])
https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/BLUU-9ZAHZH Third Party Advisory, US Government Resource ([email protected])
https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/woot15/woot15-paper-barresi.pdf Technical Description, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.antoniobarresi.com/files/cain_advisory.txt Technical Description, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/935424 Third Party Advisory, US Government Resource (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/76256 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1252096 Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/BGAR-A2CNKG Third Party Advisory, US Government Resource (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/BLUU-9ZAHZH Third Party Advisory, US Government Resource (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/woot15/woot15-paper-barresi.pdf Technical Description, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

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.