CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2016-9178

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

Published: Nov 28, 2016 | Modified: Apr 12, 2025
CVSS 3.x
5.5
MEDIUM
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
CVSS 2.x
2.1 LOW
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
RedHat/V2
1.9 LOW
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
RedHat/V3
3.3 LOW
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
Ubuntu
MEDIUM

The __get_user_asm_ex macro in arch/x86/include/asm/uaccess.h in the Linux kernel before 4.7.5 does not initialize a certain integer variable, which allows local users to obtain sensitive information from kernel stack memory by triggering failure of a get_user_ex call.

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 * 4.7.4 (including)
Linux Ubuntu esm-infra-legacy/trusty *
Linux Ubuntu esm-infra/xenial *
Linux Ubuntu focal *
Linux Ubuntu precise *
Linux Ubuntu precise/esm *
Linux Ubuntu trusty *
Linux Ubuntu trusty/esm *
Linux Ubuntu upstream *
Linux Ubuntu vivid/ubuntu-core *
Linux Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-armadaxp Ubuntu precise *
Linux-armadaxp Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-aws Ubuntu focal *
Linux-aws Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-aws-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-aws-5.4 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-aws-fips Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-aws-fips Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-aws-hwe Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-azure Ubuntu esm-infra/bionic *
Linux-azure Ubuntu focal *
Linux-azure Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-azure-4.15 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-azure-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-azure-5.4 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-azure-6.11 Ubuntu noble *
Linux-azure-fde Ubuntu esm-infra/focal *
Linux-azure-fde Ubuntu focal *
Linux-azure-fde-5.15 Ubuntu esm-infra/focal *
Linux-azure-fde-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-azure-fips Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-azure-fips Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-bluefield Ubuntu focal *
Linux-euclid Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-flo Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-flo Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-flo Ubuntu vivid/stable-phone-overlay *
Linux-flo Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-flo Ubuntu yakkety *
Linux-gcp Ubuntu esm-infra/bionic *
Linux-gcp Ubuntu focal *
Linux-gcp Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-gcp-4.15 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-gcp-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-gcp-5.4 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-gcp-6.11 Ubuntu noble *
Linux-gcp-fips Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-gcp-fips Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-gke Ubuntu esm-infra/focal *
Linux-gke Ubuntu focal *
Linux-gke Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-gkeop Ubuntu esm-infra/focal *
Linux-gkeop Ubuntu focal *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu yakkety *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu zesty *
Linux-grouper Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-grouper Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-hwe Ubuntu esm-infra/bionic *
Linux-hwe Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-hwe-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-hwe-5.4 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-hwe-6.11 Ubuntu noble *
Linux-hwe-edge Ubuntu esm-infra/bionic *
Linux-hwe-edge Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-ibm Ubuntu focal *
Linux-ibm-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-ibm-5.4 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-intel-iot-realtime Ubuntu jammy *
Linux-intel-iotg-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-iot Ubuntu focal *
Linux-kvm Ubuntu focal *
Linux-kvm Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-linaro-omap Ubuntu precise *
Linux-linaro-omap Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-linaro-shared Ubuntu precise *
Linux-linaro-shared Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-linaro-vexpress Ubuntu precise *
Linux-linaro-vexpress Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11 Ubuntu noble *
Linux-lts-quantal Ubuntu precise *
Linux-lts-quantal Ubuntu precise/esm *
Linux-lts-quantal Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-raring Ubuntu precise *
Linux-lts-raring Ubuntu precise/esm *
Linux-lts-raring Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-saucy Ubuntu precise *
Linux-lts-saucy Ubuntu precise/esm *
Linux-lts-saucy Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-trusty Ubuntu precise *
Linux-lts-trusty Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-utopic Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-lts-utopic Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-vivid Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-lts-vivid Ubuntu trusty/esm *
Linux-lts-vivid Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-wily Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-lts-wily Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-xenial Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-lts-xenial Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-maguro Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-maguro Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-mako Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-mako Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-mako Ubuntu vivid/stable-phone-overlay *
Linux-mako Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-mako Ubuntu yakkety *
Linux-manta Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-manta Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-oem Ubuntu esm-infra/bionic *
Linux-oem Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-oracle Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-oracle Ubuntu focal *
Linux-oracle Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-oracle-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-oracle-5.4 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-qcm-msm Ubuntu precise *
Linux-qcm-msm Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-raspi Ubuntu focal *
Linux-raspi-5.4 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-raspi-realtime Ubuntu noble *
Linux-raspi2 Ubuntu esm-infra/focal *
Linux-raspi2 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-raspi2 Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-raspi2 Ubuntu vivid/ubuntu-core *
Linux-raspi2 Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-realtime Ubuntu jammy *
Linux-realtime Ubuntu noble *
Linux-riscv Ubuntu esm-infra/focal *
Linux-riscv Ubuntu focal *
Linux-riscv Ubuntu jammy *
Linux-riscv Ubuntu noble *
Linux-riscv-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-snapdragon Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-snapdragon Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-snapdragon Ubuntu yakkety *
Linux-ti-omap4 Ubuntu precise *
Linux-ti-omap4 Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-xilinx-zynqmp Ubuntu focal *

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