CVE-2022-26373: information disclosure in Intel(R) Processors
Non-transparent sharing of return predictor targets between contexts in some Intel(R) Processors may allow an authorized user to potentially enable information disclosure via local access.
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
CVE-2022-26373 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting certain Intel processors. The issue arises from the non-transparent sharing of return predictor targets between different execution contexts within the processor. Specifically, the return predictor, a microarchitectural feature used to improve CPU performance by predicting the target of return instructions, can leak information across context boundaries. This behavior may allow an authorized local user—meaning someone with legitimate access to the system but without elevated privileges—to potentially disclose sensitive information. The vulnerability does not require user interaction and has a low attack complexity, but it requires local access and some level of privileges (PR:L). The impact is limited to confidentiality (C:H), with no impact on integrity or availability. There are no known exploits in the wild as of the published date, and no specific patches or mitigations were provided in the initial disclosure. This vulnerability is a form of side-channel attack leveraging microarchitectural behavior to infer data from other processes or security contexts, similar in nature to other speculative execution or microarchitectural attacks seen in recent years. The affected versions are not explicitly listed here, but generally, this would impact Intel processors with the vulnerable return predictor implementation. The vulnerability was published on August 18, 2022, and is tracked under CVE-2022-26373 with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.5 (medium severity).
Potential Impact
For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to confidentiality of sensitive information processed on affected Intel processors. Since the exploit requires local access and some privileges, the threat is more relevant in environments where multiple users share systems or where attackers can gain foothold with limited privileges, such as in multi-tenant cloud environments, shared workstations, or virtualized infrastructures. Confidential data such as cryptographic keys, personal data, or intellectual property could potentially be leaked. Although the vulnerability does not affect integrity or availability, the confidentiality breach could lead to further attacks or compliance violations under regulations like GDPR. The lack of known exploits reduces immediate risk, but the presence of this vulnerability in widely deployed Intel processors means that European enterprises, especially those in finance, healthcare, government, and critical infrastructure sectors, should be vigilant. The impact is heightened in environments with sensitive workloads and where strict data isolation is required.
Mitigation Recommendations
Given the nature of the vulnerability, mitigation should focus on limiting local access and reducing the risk of privilege escalation. Specific recommendations include: 1) Apply any Intel microcode updates or OS patches as they become available to address this vulnerability. Monitor Intel and OS vendor advisories closely. 2) Enforce strict access controls and user privilege management to prevent unauthorized local access. 3) Use virtualization and containerization with strong isolation policies to minimize cross-context leakage. 4) Employ runtime monitoring and anomaly detection to identify suspicious local activities that could indicate exploitation attempts. 5) Consider disabling hyper-threading on affected systems if microcode or OS patches are unavailable, as this can reduce side-channel leakage vectors. 6) For cloud providers and multi-tenant environments, implement strict tenant isolation and consider workload placement strategies to avoid co-residency of sensitive workloads on vulnerable hardware. 7) Regularly audit systems for compliance with security policies and ensure that sensitive data is encrypted at rest and in transit to reduce the impact of potential leaks.
Affected Countries
Germany, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden
CVE-2022-26373: information disclosure in Intel(R) Processors
Description
Non-transparent sharing of return predictor targets between contexts in some Intel(R) Processors may allow an authorized user to potentially enable information disclosure via local access.
AI-Powered Analysis
Technical Analysis
CVE-2022-26373 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting certain Intel processors. The issue arises from the non-transparent sharing of return predictor targets between different execution contexts within the processor. Specifically, the return predictor, a microarchitectural feature used to improve CPU performance by predicting the target of return instructions, can leak information across context boundaries. This behavior may allow an authorized local user—meaning someone with legitimate access to the system but without elevated privileges—to potentially disclose sensitive information. The vulnerability does not require user interaction and has a low attack complexity, but it requires local access and some level of privileges (PR:L). The impact is limited to confidentiality (C:H), with no impact on integrity or availability. There are no known exploits in the wild as of the published date, and no specific patches or mitigations were provided in the initial disclosure. This vulnerability is a form of side-channel attack leveraging microarchitectural behavior to infer data from other processes or security contexts, similar in nature to other speculative execution or microarchitectural attacks seen in recent years. The affected versions are not explicitly listed here, but generally, this would impact Intel processors with the vulnerable return predictor implementation. The vulnerability was published on August 18, 2022, and is tracked under CVE-2022-26373 with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.5 (medium severity).
Potential Impact
For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to confidentiality of sensitive information processed on affected Intel processors. Since the exploit requires local access and some privileges, the threat is more relevant in environments where multiple users share systems or where attackers can gain foothold with limited privileges, such as in multi-tenant cloud environments, shared workstations, or virtualized infrastructures. Confidential data such as cryptographic keys, personal data, or intellectual property could potentially be leaked. Although the vulnerability does not affect integrity or availability, the confidentiality breach could lead to further attacks or compliance violations under regulations like GDPR. The lack of known exploits reduces immediate risk, but the presence of this vulnerability in widely deployed Intel processors means that European enterprises, especially those in finance, healthcare, government, and critical infrastructure sectors, should be vigilant. The impact is heightened in environments with sensitive workloads and where strict data isolation is required.
Mitigation Recommendations
Given the nature of the vulnerability, mitigation should focus on limiting local access and reducing the risk of privilege escalation. Specific recommendations include: 1) Apply any Intel microcode updates or OS patches as they become available to address this vulnerability. Monitor Intel and OS vendor advisories closely. 2) Enforce strict access controls and user privilege management to prevent unauthorized local access. 3) Use virtualization and containerization with strong isolation policies to minimize cross-context leakage. 4) Employ runtime monitoring and anomaly detection to identify suspicious local activities that could indicate exploitation attempts. 5) Consider disabling hyper-threading on affected systems if microcode or OS patches are unavailable, as this can reduce side-channel leakage vectors. 6) For cloud providers and multi-tenant environments, implement strict tenant isolation and consider workload placement strategies to avoid co-residency of sensitive workloads on vulnerable hardware. 7) Regularly audit systems for compliance with security policies and ensure that sensitive data is encrypted at rest and in transit to reduce the impact of potential leaks.
Affected Countries
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Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.1
- Assigner Short Name
- intel
- Date Reserved
- 2022-05-11T00:00:00.000Z
- Cisa Enriched
- true
- Cvss Version
- 3.1
- State
- PUBLISHED
Threat ID: 682d981ec4522896dcbdc13b
Added to database: 5/21/2025, 9:08:46 AM
Last enriched: 7/6/2025, 11:42:39 PM
Last updated: 7/27/2025, 3:36:47 AM
Views: 15
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