CVE-2024-35875

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

Published May 19, 2024 CVSS 3.1 · 8.4 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
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. ]

Analysis

No analysis available yet

Remediation

No remediation available yet

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-6893-1 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-6893-2 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-6893-3 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-6918-1 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

cvssV3_1

{'score': 8.4, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Linux
Linux linux Kernel
Weaknesses NVD-CWE-noinfo
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.9:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.9:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Linux
Linux linux Kernel
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Redhat enterprise Linux
CPEs cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:9
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9
Vendors & Products Redhat enterprise Linux
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Redhat
Redhat rhel Eus
CPEs cpe:/a:redhat:rhel_eus:9.2
cpe:/a:redhat:rhel_eus:9.2::nfv
Vendors & Products Redhat
Redhat rhel Eus
Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
Linux
Published
Updated
Aug 5, 2026, 11:30 AM
Reserved
May 17, 2024, 1:50 PM
Status
Modified
Published
May 19, 2024, 9:15 AM
Modified
Aug 4, 2026, 11:18 AM
Severity
Moderate
Public date
May 19, 2024, 12:00 AM