vulnerability
Red Hat: CVE-2023-3640: Kernel: x86/mm: a per-cpu entry area leak was identified through the init_cea_offsets function when prefetchnta and prefetcht2 instructions being used for the per-cpu entry area mapping to the user space
| Severity | CVSS | Published | Added | Modified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | (AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C) | Jul 24, 2023 | Jul 9, 2025 | Jul 10, 2025 |
Description
A possible unauthorized memory access flaw was found in the Linux kernel's cpu_entry_area mapping of X86 CPU data to memory, where a user may guess the location of exception stacks or other important data. Based on the previous CVE-2023-0597, the 'Randomize per-cpu entry area' feature was implemented in /arch/x86/mm/cpu_entry_area.c, which works through the init_cea_offsets() function when KASLR is enabled. However, despite this feature, there is still a risk of per-cpu entry area leaks. This issue could allow a local user to gain access to some important data with memory in an expected location and potentially escalate their privileges on the system.
Solution
References
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