CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2011-1162

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

Published: Jan 27, 2012 | Modified: Mar 19, 2012
CVSS 3.x
N/A
Source:
NVD
CVSS 2.x
2.1 LOW
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
RedHat/V2
1.2 LOW
AV:L/AC:H/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu
LOW

The tpm_read function in the Linux kernel 2.6 does not properly clear memory, which might allow local users to read the results of the previous TPM command.

Weakness

The product exposes sensitive information to an actor that is not explicitly authorized to have access to that information.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Linux_kernel Linux 2.6 (including) 2.6 (including)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 RedHat kernel-0:2.6.18-274.12.1.el5 *
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 RedHat kernel-0:2.6.32-131.21.1.el6 *
Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 RedHat kernel-rt-0:2.6.33.9-rt31.79.el6rt *
Linux Ubuntu hardy *
Linux Ubuntu lucid *
Linux Ubuntu maverick *
Linux Ubuntu natty *
Linux Ubuntu oneiric *
Linux Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-armadaxp Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-aws Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-ec2 Ubuntu lucid *
Linux-ec2 Ubuntu maverick *
Linux-ec2 Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-flo Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-fsl-imx51 Ubuntu lucid *
Linux-fsl-imx51 Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-gke Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu saucy *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-grouper Ubuntu saucy *
Linux-grouper Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-hwe Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-hwe-edge Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-backport-maverick Ubuntu lucid *
Linux-lts-backport-maverick Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-backport-maverick Ubuntu vivid/ubuntu-core *
Linux-lts-backport-natty Ubuntu lucid *
Linux-lts-backport-natty Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-backport-natty Ubuntu vivid/ubuntu-core *
Linux-lts-backport-oneiric Ubuntu lucid *
Linux-lts-backport-oneiric Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-backport-oneiric Ubuntu vivid/ubuntu-core *
Linux-lts-quantal Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-raring Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-saucy Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-trusty Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-utopic Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-vivid Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-wily Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-xenial Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-maguro Ubuntu saucy *
Linux-maguro Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-maguro Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-mako Ubuntu saucy *
Linux-mako Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-manta Ubuntu saucy *
Linux-manta Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-mvl-dove Ubuntu lucid *
Linux-mvl-dove Ubuntu maverick *
Linux-mvl-dove Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-raspi2 Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-raspi2 Ubuntu vivid/ubuntu-core *
Linux-snapdragon Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-ti-omap4 Ubuntu maverick *
Linux-ti-omap4 Ubuntu natty *
Linux-ti-omap4 Ubuntu oneiric *
Linux-ti-omap4 Ubuntu upstream *

Extended Description

There are many different kinds of mistakes that introduce information exposures. The severity of the error can range widely, depending on the context in which the product operates, the type of sensitive information that is revealed, and the benefits it may provide to an attacker. Some kinds of sensitive information include:

Information might be sensitive to different parties, each of which may have their own expectations for whether the information should be protected. These parties include:

Information exposures can occur in different ways:

It is common practice to describe any loss of confidentiality as an “information exposure,” but this can lead to overuse of CWE-200 in CWE mapping. From the CWE perspective, loss of confidentiality is a technical impact that can arise from dozens of different weaknesses, such as insecure file permissions or out-of-bounds read. CWE-200 and its lower-level descendants are intended to cover the mistakes that occur in behaviors that explicitly manage, store, transfer, or cleanse sensitive information.

Potential Mitigations

  • Compartmentalize the system to have “safe” areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area.
  • Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.

References