Advisory on VMScape CPU Vulnerability

VMSCAPE vulnerablity affecting AMD and Intel CPUs

A team of researchers at ETH Zurich university, have developed a new attack called VMScape that breaks the isolation between VMs and the cloud hypervisor, bypassing existing Spectre mitigations and threatening to leak sensitive data by leveraging speculative execution. Redhat has classified this vulnerabilities as having a Moderate severity score with a CVSS score 6.5.

The exploit, called VMScape, exploits insufficient branch predictor isolation between a guest and a userspace hypervisor such as Quick Emulator (QEMU), allowing a malicious KVM guest to leak sensitive information. Cloud computing relies on virtualization to securely partition physical computing resources into virtual ones, which are managed by a hypervisor. VMSCAPE targets the Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM) and QEMU, as the hypervisor and the userspace component of the hypervisor, respectively, in the host. The attack affects all AMD processors from Zen 1 to Zen 5, as well as Intel’s “Coffee Lake” and older CPUs. The newer “Raptor Cove” and “Gracemont” are not impacted.

What is the risk?

If an attacker exploits this vulnerability, they could exfiltrate information contained within different security contexts, such as other virtual machines or the host device itself.

Impacted IONOS Cloud products

Product Ranges	Product	Impacted	Mitigated	Patch Status
Compute Services	Dedicated Core Servers	Yes	Yes	Done
Compute Services	vCPU Servers	Yes	Yes	Done
Compute Services	Cubes	Yes	Yes	Done

What action has IONOS Cloud taken to mitigate the severity?

IONOS Cloud is committed to the privacy and security of our customers' data. We are aware of this vulnerability and have already taken the required steps to mitigate this vulnerability. IONOS Cloud owns the patching responsibility, and no action is required from the customer.

How can I get help?

If you have further questions or concerns about this vulnerability, contact IONOS Cloud Support.