Bug 1312298 (CVE-2016-2117)

Summary:	CVE-2016-2117 kernel: Kernel memory leakage to ethernet frames due to buffer overflow in ethernet drivers
Product:	[Other] Security Response	Reporter:	Adam Mariš <amaris>
Component:	vulnerability	Assignee:	Red Hat Product Security <security-response-team>
Status:	CLOSED ERRATA	QA Contact:
Severity:	low	Docs Contact:
Priority:	low
Version:	unspecified	CC:	aquini, bhu, carnil, dhoward, fhrbata, iboverma, jkacur, joelsmith, jross, kernel-mgr, kstutsma, lgoncalv, matt, mcressma, nmurray, plougher, rvrbovsk, security-response-team, slawomir, vdronov, williams
Target Milestone:	---	Keywords:	Security
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	No Doc Update
Doc Text:	It was discovered that the atl2_probe() function in the Atheros L2 Ethernet driver in the Linux kernel incorrectly enabled scatter/gather I/O. A remote attacker could use this flaw to obtain potentially sensitive information from the kernel memory.	Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2019-06-08 02:48:57 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:	1318336, 1320105, 1320106, 1320107, 1320108, 1320109
Bug Blocks:	1312299

Description Adam Mariš 2016-02-26 10:52:43 UTC

It was reported that due to buffer overflow, it is possible for remote TCP endpoint to trigger the opposite TCP endpoint to write to a socket in sequence which causes the ethernet driver to send arbitrary kernel data over the ethernet interface instead of a portion of the intended packet data.

Initially this issue was believed to be present in a number of mainline drivers in 3.10.x and 4.4.2 vanilla kernel sources. After further investigation it was found that only [atl2] driver (code in drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/atlx/atl2.c) from the list of suspected drivers is vulnerable.

As a result, certain conditions should be met to trigger the issue:
- the [atl2] driver and the corresponding network card (which believed to be not so frequently used) should be present on the target system
- an application should make such a sequence of calls that a network buffer for the data to be transmitted is scattered
- hardware checksumming should be enabled so the packet checksum is correct

The above makes this vulnerability less probable to be hit.

Comment 1 Andrej Nemec 2016-03-16 14:40:38 UTC

Created kernel tracking bugs for this issue:

Affects: fedora-all [bug 1318336]

Comment 2 Andrej Nemec 2016-03-16 14:41:00 UTC

Public via:

http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2016/q1/658

Comment 3 Vladis Dronov 2016-03-22 09:46:53 UTC

Acknowledgments:

Name: Justin Yackoski (Cryptonite)

Comment 4 Vladis Dronov 2016-03-22 09:59:52 UTC

Statement:

This issue does not affect the Linux kernel packages as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 as the code with the flaw is not present in the products listed.

This issue does not affect the Linux kernel packages as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 as the suspected driver does not advertise that it has scatter-gather feature, which presence is essential for the flaw.

This issue affects the Linux kernel packages as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and MRG-2, namely the [atl2] Ethernet driver which is the only driver affected. Future Linux kernel updates for the respective releases might address this issue.

Comment 11 errata-xmlrpc 2016-11-03 15:45:13 UTC

This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Via RHSA-2016:2574 https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-2574.html

Comment 12 errata-xmlrpc 2016-11-03 19:42:52 UTC

This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Via RHSA-2016:2584 https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-2584.html

Comment 13 errata-xmlrpc 2016-11-03 21:33:06 UTC

This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Via RHSA-2016:2574 https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-2574.html

Comment 14 errata-xmlrpc 2016-11-03 21:48:14 UTC

This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Via RHSA-2016:2584 https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-2584.html