Andreas Kogler

An issue was discovered in the SCONE Confidential Computing Platform, where the lack of pointer-alignment logic in ` scone dispatch` and other entry functions allows a local attacker to access unauthorized information, also known as an "AEPIC Leak". This issue affects the Intel SGX platform.

The issue concerns improper or unexpected behavior of the INVD instruction in some AMD CPUs, potentially allowing an attacker with a malicious hypervisor to affect cache line write-back behavior of the CPU. This could lead to a loss of guest virtual machine (VM) memory integrity. The vulnerability, known as CacheWarp, affects AMD's Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) technology, which is designed to protect against malicious hypervisors and reduce the attack surface of virtual machines by encrypting data. CacheWarp can be exploited to escalate privileges, execute remote code, and bypass authentication in virtual machines. The attack involves manipulating cache lines and exploiting the INVD instruction to alter the behavior of the CPU, potentially allowing attackers to gain control over virtual machines and access sensitive data.

A potential power side-channel vulnerability may allow an authenticated attacker to monitor the CPU power consumption as the data in a cache line changes over time, potentially resulting in a leak of sensitive information. The vulnerability, known as Collide+Power, can be exploited to obtain confidential data, such as passwords or encryption keys. It is estimated that almost all modern processors are affected, including those from AMD, ARM, and Intel. However, the vulnerability is considered difficult to exploit, and the speed of data leakage is relatively low, making it unlikely to be used for attacks on end-users. The vulnerability can be used to enhance other software side-channel attacks, such as PLATYPUS and Hertzbleed.

The issue is related to execution unit scheduler contention, which may lead to a side channel vulnerability. By measuring the contention level on scheduler queues, an attacker may potentially leak sensitive information. This vulnerability, known as SQUIP, affects AMD processors and allows an attacker to determine data used in other processes or virtual machines or establish a hidden communication channel between them, bypassing system access control mechanisms.

The issue is related to improper isolation of shared resources in some Intel(R) Processors, which may allow a privileged user to potentially enable information disclosure via local access. This is caused by an architectural flaw that allows access to uninitialized data left in the Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC) registers after previous operations. The problem affects systems using the Software Guard Extensions (SGX) technology.

The issue allows guest OS administrators to obtain sensitive information, such as AES keys from outside the guest, via a side-channel attack on a power/energy monitoring interface, also known as a "Platypus" attack.