CVE-2019-15902 — A backporting error was discovered in the Linux stable/longterm kernel 4

A backporting error was discovered in the Linux stable/longterm kernel 4.4.x through 4.4.190, 4.9.x through 4.9.190, 4.14.x through 4.14.141, 4.19.x through 4.19.69, and 5.2.x through 5.2.11. Misuse of the upstream "x86/ptrace: Fix possible spectre-v1 in ptrace_get_debugreg(

01What is this vulnerability?

A backporting error was discovered in the Linux stable/longterm kernel 4.4.x through 4.4.190, 4.9.x through 4.9.190, 4.14.x through 4.14.141, 4.19.x through 4.19.69, and 5.2.x through 5.2.11. Misuse of the upstream "x86/ptrace: Fix possible spectre-v1 in ptrace_get_debugreg()" commit reintroduced the Spectre vulnerability that it aimed to eliminate. This occurred because the backport process…

02Affected products

Vendor	Product	Versions
n	a / n/a	n/a

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Ask SARA in chat to draft a starting detection for this CVE in your stack of choice.

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2019-09-04T05:50:48.000Z
• Last modified: 2024-08-05T01:03:32.281Z

09References

• grsecurity.net — https://grsecurity.net/teardown_of_a_failed_linux_lts_spectre_fix.php
• lists.opensuse.org — http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-09/msg00064.html
• lists.opensuse.org — http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-09/msg00066.html
• seclists.org — https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2019/Sep/41
• www.debian.org — https://www.debian.org/security/2019/dsa-4531
• lists.debian.org — https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/10/msg00000.html
• security.netapp.com — https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20191004-0001/
• usn.ubuntu.com — https://usn.ubuntu.com/4157-1/
• usn.ubuntu.com — https://usn.ubuntu.com/4162-1/
• usn.ubuntu.com — https://usn.ubuntu.com/4157-2/
• usn.ubuntu.com — https://usn.ubuntu.com/4163-1/
• usn.ubuntu.com — https://usn.ubuntu.com/4163-2/
• usn.ubuntu.com — https://usn.ubuntu.com/4162-2/