CentOS - Apr 2014 - OpenSSL Heartbeat exploit agains KVM guest systems

Is it possible to use this exploit against a kvm guest to read memory used by
the host?  In other words: if an exploitable service, say httpd with mod_ssl,
is running in guest system 'vm1' hosted on system 'virthost'
then what
implications does that have with respect to guests vm2 and vm3 and to virthost
itself?


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James B. Byrne                mailto:ByrneJB at Harte-Lyne.ca
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On 08.04.2014 15:11, James B. Byrne wrote:
> Is it possible to use this exploit against a kvm guest to read memory 
> used by
> the host?  In other words: if an exploitable service, say httpd with 
> mod_ssl,
> is running in guest system 'vm1' hosted on system
'virthost' then what
> implications does that have with respect to guests vm2 and vm3 and to 
> virthost
> itself?
I don't think your other VMs would be in any danger.
This is a classic example where you can say virtualisation can be used 
safely and where the technology is better than mere "containers" which
would arguably put you in a bad spot.

Imagine that is if a silly OpenSSL exploit could access the physical 
host, what a full fledged program could do. This is not the case, 
clearly; it would mean Google Compute Engine (and all KVM providers) 
would suddenly be pwned.

Lucian

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On Tue, Apr 08, 2014 at 10:11:32AM -0400, James B. Byrne
wrote:
> Is it possible to use this exploit against a kvm guest to read memory used
by
> the host?  In other words: if an exploitable service, say httpd with
mod_ssl,
> is running in guest system 'vm1' hosted on system
'virthost' then what
> implications does that have with respect to guests vm2 and vm3 and to
virthost
> itself?
As I understand it, no. In fact, the memory read doesn't even cross normal
*memory protections within* the VM -- this is not a kernel exploit.

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Matthew Miller           mattdm at mattdm.org         
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