full-disclosure - Re: How to lock up a VirtualBox host machine with a guest using tracepath over virtio-net network interface

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Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 09:09:52 +0200
From: Źmicier Januszkiewicz <gauri@....by>
To: "full-disclosure@...ts.grok.org.uk" <Full-Disclosure@...ts.grok.org.uk>
Subject: Re: How to lock up a VirtualBox host machine with
 a guest using tracepath over virtio-net network interface

Hi,

Tested this on Windows 7 x64 host instead (no Linux box available atm);
confirmed the issue (consumes CPU and kills the host network adapter).

Can someone assign a CVE for this? Looks like this can be exploited to at
least DoS other VMs on the same host.

2013/6/21 Thomas Dreibholz <dreibh@...ula.no>

> Hi,
>
> I have discovered a problem with the VirtualBox virtio-net network driver
> that
> leads to a lockup of the host machine's kernel and the need for a hard
> reset
> to make it working again. The bug had been reported to the VirtualBox bug
> tracker 8 days ago (https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/11863), with the
> usual
> reaction from Oracle support (i.e. none).
>
> The bug can be reproduced easily as follows:
>
> - The host system is a 64-bit Linux (tested with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and
> Kubuntu
> 13.04). Did not try 32 bit.
>
> - VirtualBox is the latest version 4.2.12 (using Oracle's Ubuntu
> repository).
>
> - Create a new VM, use e.g. Kubuntu live CD image (32 or 64 bit, makes no
> difference). No disk needed.
>
> - Network adapter is: Bridged, Adapter Type: virtio-net.
> Boot the system, ensure that network is working.
>
> - tracepath 8.8.8.8
> Now, the virtual machine locks up and the host machine's kernel seems to
> have
> at least one core blocked. The host machine's console output is "BUG: soft
> lockup - CPU #2 stuck for 22s ...". Also, the network on the host machine
> does
> not work any more. For example, "ifconfig" just hangs.
>
> - To recover the host machine, it needs a hard reset. "sudo reboot", etc.
> will
> not work, since the kernel seems to hang.
>
> This bug is critical, since it makes the host machine's network unusable
> (particularly, if the host system is at a remote location), and it is very
> easy to trigger with just a simple, standard "tracepath" call inside a
> virtual
> machine. It is therefore trivial for a normal user in such a machine to
> trigger a denial of service. I did no further investigation of the problem
> yet, but if it is related to the path MTU discovery by tracepath, it might
> be
> possible to trigger it by a lot of other software as well.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Thomas
>
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