CVE-2010-3881

Severity: low (CVSS 2.1 v2.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2010-12-23 · updated 2026-06-16
Weakness: CWE-200

Description

arch/x86/kvm/x86.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.36.2 does not initialize certain structure members, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel stack memory via read operations on the /dev/kvm device.

Affected products

Linux kernel: before 2.6.36.2 — fixed in 2.6.36.2
RedHat Enterprise Linux Server: 6.0
RedHat Enterprise Linux Workstation: 6.0
Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop: 11-sp1
Suse Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension: 11-sp1
SUSE Linux Enterprise: 11-sp1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 2.6.36.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=97e69aa62f8b5d338d6cff49be09e37cc1262838
http://git.kernel.org/?p=virt/kvm/kvm.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=831d9d02f9522e739825a51a11e3bc5aa531a905
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2011-01/msg00004.html
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2011-02/msg00000.html
http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2010/11/04/10
http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2010/11/05/4
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2010-0998.html
http://secunia.com/advisories/42932
http://securitytracker.com/id?1024912
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.36.2
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/44666
http://www.spinics.net/lists/kvm/msg44130.html

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