CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2018-20509

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

Published: Apr 30, 2019 | Modified: Nov 07, 2023
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
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
NEGLIGIBLE

The print_binder_ref_olocked function in drivers/android/binder.c in the Linux kernel 4.14.90 allows local users to obtain sensitive address information by reading ref *desc *node lines in a debugfs file.

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 4.14.90 (including) 4.14.90 (including)
Linux Ubuntu esm-infra-legacy/trusty *
Linux Ubuntu precise/esm *
Linux Ubuntu trusty/esm *
Linux Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-aws Ubuntu esm-infra-legacy/trusty *
Linux-aws Ubuntu trusty/esm *
Linux-aws Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-aws-hwe Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-azure Ubuntu esm-infra-legacy/trusty *
Linux-azure Ubuntu trusty/esm *
Linux-azure Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-azure Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-azure-edge Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-azure-edge Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-euclid Ubuntu esm-apps/xenial *
Linux-euclid Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-euclid Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-flo Ubuntu esm-apps/xenial *
Linux-flo Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-flo Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-gcp Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-gcp Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-gcp-edge Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-gke Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-gke Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-gke-4.15 Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu esm-apps/xenial *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-grouper Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-hwe Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-hwe Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-hwe-edge Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-hwe-edge Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-kvm Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-trusty Ubuntu precise/esm *
Linux-lts-trusty Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-utopic Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-vivid Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-wily Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-xenial Ubuntu esm-infra-legacy/trusty *
Linux-lts-xenial Ubuntu trusty/esm *
Linux-lts-xenial Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-maguro Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-mako Ubuntu esm-apps/xenial *
Linux-mako Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-mako Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-manta Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-oem Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-oem Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-oracle Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-raspi2 Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-snapdragon Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-snapdragon 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