On May 8, fixes for CVE-2018-1087 and CVE-2018-8897 were released in linux kernel version 4.4.0-124.148. These CVEs are both related to the way that the linux kernel handles certain interrupt and exception instructions. If an interrupt or exception instruction (INT3, SYSCALL, etc.) is immediately preceded by a MOV SS or POP SS instruction, the resulting interrupt will be incorrectly handled, possibly crashing the operating system. The issue can be triggered by an unprivileged user. The fix for this problem requires modification of the interrupt descriptor tables (IDT), and modification of the interrupt handlers. Livepatch is unable to safely modify these areas, so upgrading to a corrected kernel and rebooting is required to fix the problem. Continue reading...
