Enterprise LinuxOperating system · Redhat
CVE-2019-19339
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedIt was found that the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 kpatch update did not include the complete fix for CVE-2018-12207. A flaw was found in the way Intel CPUs handle inconsistency between, virtual to physical memory address translations in CPU's local cache and system software's Paging structure entries. A privileged guest user may use this flaw to induce a hardware Machine Check Error on the host processor, resulting in a severe DoS scenario by halting the processor. System software like OS OR Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) use virtual memory system for storing program instructions and data in memory. Virtual Memory system uses Paging structures like Page Tables and Page Directories to manage system memory. The processor's Memory Management Unit (MMU) uses Paging structure entries to translate program's virtual memory addresses to physical memory addresses. The processor stores these address translations into its local cache buffer called - Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB). TLB has two parts, one for instructions and other for data addresses. System software can modify its Paging structure entries to change address mappings OR certain attributes like page size etc. Upon such Paging structure alterations in memory, system software must invalidate the corresponding address translations in the processor's TLB cache. But before this TLB invalidation takes place, a privileged guest user may trigger an instruction fetch operation, which could use an already cached, but now invalid, virtual to physical address translation from Instruction TLB (ITLB). Thus accessing an invalid physical memory address and resulting in halting the processor due to the Machine Check Error (MCE) on Page Size Change.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceA flaw in Intel CPUs allows a privileged guest user to trigger a Machine Check Error (MCE) by exploiting timing between TLB invalidation and instruction fetches. When system software modifies paging structure entries, the TLB cache may retain stale translations that can be used before invalidation occurs, causing the processor to access invalid physical memory and halt.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Enterprise LinuxOperating system
= 8.0
Enterprise Linux EusOperating system
= 8.1CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify CPU vendorRun 'lscpu | grep "Vendor ID"' or check /proc/cpuinfo for 'GenuineIntel'Affected if CPU is not Intel (the vulnerability is Intel-specific)
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Check RHEL versionRun 'cat /etc/redhat-release' or 'hostnamectl'Affected if Version is exactly 8.0 or 8.1 (these are the affected versions)
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Determine if running as a virtual guestRun 'systemd-detect-virt' or check 'virt-what' outputAffected if System is running as a virtual machine (the flaw is triggered by a privileged guest user)
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Check kernel versionRun 'uname -r' to confirm kernel versionAffected if Kernel corresponds to RHEL 8.0 or 8.1 release cycle
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Verify microcode versionRun 'dmesg | grep -i microcode' or check /proc/cpuinfo for 'microcode' versionAffected if Microcode is not updated to include fixes for TLB invalidation timing issues
System is affected if it uses an Intel CPU, runs RHEL 8.0 or 8.1, operates as a virtual machine guest, and lacks updated microcode/kernel patches for TLB invalidation flaw.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataApply the complete fix for CVE-2018-12207 through kernel updates and Intel CPU microcode updates. Ensure kpatch or equivalent updates include the full correction rather than partial fixes.
Fix this in Enterprise Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,808.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-19339 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-19339 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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