** DISPUTED ** Kernel Samepage Merging (KSM) in the Linux...
Low severity
Unreviewed
Published
May 13, 2022
to the GitHub Advisory Database
•
Updated Feb 1, 2023
Description
Published by the National Vulnerability Database
Mar 3, 2017
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database
May 13, 2022
Last updated
Feb 1, 2023
** DISPUTED ** 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.
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