Bug 1286966 (CVE-2015-8370)

Summary: CVE-2015-8370 grub2: buffer overflow when checking password entered during bootup
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: Martin Prpič <mprpic>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Red Hat Product Security <security-response-team>
Status: CLOSED ERRATA QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: bootloader-eng-team, carnil, ggasparb, jaredz, jpazdziora, mbanas, mlewando, pjanda, pjones, pkotvan, pmatouse, rharwood, security-response-team
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the way grub2 handled backspace characters entered in username and password prompts. An attacker with access to the system console could use this flaw to bypass grub2 password protection and gain administrative access to the system.
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2015-12-15 11:07:38 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On: 1288493, 1288494, 1290417    
Bug Blocks: 1286968    
Attachments:
Description Flags
Upstream fix none

Description Martin Prpič 2015-12-01 09:09:42 UTC
A buffer overflow flaw was found in the way grub2 checked the password entered by the user during bootup. A local attacker could use this flaw to circumvent the password check and, potentially, execute arbitrary code on the system.

Comment 1 Peter Jones 2015-12-01 18:44:26 UTC
Created attachment 1100986 [details]
Upstream fix

Here's the fix.

Comment 7 Martin Prpič 2015-12-10 13:14:13 UTC
Created grub2 tracking bugs for this issue:

Affects: fedora-all [bug 1290417]

Comment 8 Martin Prpič 2015-12-10 13:16:20 UTC
This flaw has been presented at the CCN-CERT conference by the UPV security team:

https://twitter.com/lostinsecurity/status/674925944524640257

Comment 9 errata-xmlrpc 2015-12-15 10:02:07 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Via RHSA-2015:2623 https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-2623.html

Comment 10 Tomas Hoger 2015-12-15 14:14:05 UTC
Detailed write-up from the original reporters.

External References:

http://hmarco.org/bugs/CVE-2015-8370-Grub2-authentication-bypass.html

Comment 12 Jan Pazdziora (Red Hat) 2023-07-25 14:57:48 UTC
Hello,

while doing review of the Vulnerability Assessment report of RHEL 8.6 for the purpose of Common Criteria certification, we came across this CVE-2015-8370. The CVE page https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2015-8370 does not list RHEL 8 at all but RHEL 8 ships grub2 2.02 (specifically in RHEL 8.6 it is 2.02-123.el8).

I assume we still carry the patch in RHEL 8 so the vulnerability is mitigated there but shouldn't the CVE page mention RHEL 8 as well?

Thank you, Jan

Comment 13 Petr Matousek 2023-08-10 11:35:54 UTC
In reply to comment #12:
> I assume we still carry the patch in RHEL 8 so the vulnerability is
> mitigated there but shouldn't the CVE page mention RHEL 8 as well?

I've added an entry for rhel-8, but note that this CVE is from 2015, that is
before rhel-8 even existed. we can't anticipate future releases; the general
rule is to not release major versions with known CVEs, any future major version
should include the fix regardless of being mentioned on CVE pages or not.