CVE-2024-35875

x86/coco: Require seeding RNG with RDRAND on CoCo systems

MEDIUM
5.5
CVSS Score
Published: May 19, 2024 at 08:34 AM UTC
Updated: August 5, 2026 at 12:04 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
MEDIUM5.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.3%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: x86/coco: Require seeding RNG with RDRAND on CoCo systems There are few uses of CoCo that don't rely on working cryptography and hence a working RNG. Unfortunately, the CoCo threat model means that the VM host cannot be trusted and may actively work against guests to extract secrets or manipulate computation. Since a malicious host can modify or observe nearly all inputs to guests, the only remaining source of entropy for CoCo guests is RDRAND. If RDRAND is broken -- due to CPU hardware fault -- the RNG as a whole is meant to gracefully continue on gathering entropy from other sources, but since there aren't other sources on CoCo, this is catastrophic. This is mostly a concern at boot time when initially seeding the RNG, as after that the consequences of a broken RDRAND are much more theoretical. So, try at boot to seed the RNG using 256 bits of RDRAND output. If this fails, panic(). This will also trigger if the system is booted without RDRAND, as RDRAND is essential for a safe CoCo boot. Add this deliberately to be "just a CoCo x86 driver feature" and not part of the RNG itself. Many device drivers and platforms have some desire to contribute something to the RNG, and add_device_randomness() is specifically meant for this purpose. Any driver can call it with seed data of any quality, or even garbage quality, and it can only possibly make the quality of the RNG better or have no effect, but can never make it worse. Rather than trying to build something into the core of the RNG, consider the particular CoCo issue just a CoCo issue, and therefore separate it all out into driver (well, arch/platform) code. [ bp: Massage commit message. ]

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 6.1.854.15 ≤ v < 6.1.854.15 ≤ v < 6.6.264.15 ≤ v < 6.8.54.15 ≤ v < 6.96.2 ≤ v < 6.6.266.7 ≤ v < 6.8.56.9 rc16.9 rc2d8aa7eea78a1401cce39b3bb61ead0150044a3df
Vendor states this is fixed in 08044b08b37528b82f70a87576c692b4e4b7716e (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 22943e4fe4b3a2dcbadc3d38d5bf840bbdbfe374 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 453b5f2dec276c1bb4ea078bf8c0da57ee4627e5 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 99485c4c026f024e7cb82da84c7951dbe3deb584 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 4.15 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.85 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.6.26 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.8.5 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.9 (unaffected)

References (4)

Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/08044b08b37528b82f70a87576c692b4e4b7716e
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/22943e4fe4b3a2dcbadc3d38d5bf840bbdbfe374
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/453b5f2dec276c1bb4ea078bf8c0da57ee4627e5
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/99485c4c026f024e7cb82da84c7951dbe3deb584

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
NVD-CWE-noinfo

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