Overview
When the Microsoft update for meltdown is installed on a Windows 7 x64 or Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 system, an unprivileged process may be able to read and write the entire memory space available to the Windows kernel.
Description
The update that Microsoft has released for meltdown on x64 versions of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 incorrectly sets the permission bit for memory accessible from unprivileged user space. As a result, such platforms that have the meltdown update installed, which was released in January 2018 will not properly protect the contents of system memory.. |
Impact
An attacker with the ability to run code on an affected platform as an unprivileged user may be able to read from and write to the entire contents of system memory. Exploit code that uses this vulnerability to escalate privileges from an unprivileged user to SYSTEM privileges is publicly available. |
Solution
Apply an update This issue is addressed in the Microsoft update for CVE-2018-1038. |
Vendor Information
CVSS Metrics
| Group | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|
| Base | 6.8 | AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C |
| Temporal | 5.9 | E:H/RL:OF/RC:C |
| Environmental | 5.9 | CDP:ND/TD:H/CR:ND/IR:ND/AR:ND |
References
Acknowledgements
This vulnerability was publicly reported by Ulf Frisk.
This document was written by Will Dormann.
Other Information
| CVE IDs: | CVE-2018-1038 |
| Date Public: | 2018-03-27 |
| Date First Published: | 2018-03-29 |
| Date Last Updated: | 2018-04-24 14:47 UTC |
| Document Revision: | 25 |