SLUBStick explained

SLUBStick is a new Linux kernel exploit technique. It can allow an attacker to elevate a limited heap vulnerability to an arbitrary memory read/write access. This can be leveraged for privilege escalation and container escapes, even with modern defences enabled.^[1]

Discovery

SLUBStick was discovered by Lukas Maar, Stefan Gast, Martin Unterguggenberger, Mathias Oberhuber, and Stefan Mangard, Graz University of Technology, and first presented at USENIX 2024 symposium.^[2]

Vulnerable platforms

The technique is demonstrated on Linux kernel versions 5.19 and 6.2 on the x86_64 and x86 platform, but is assumed to be possible in all Linux versions on those platforms. Also Linux kernels running on virtual machines on those platforms are considered vulnerable.

Further reading

• SLUBStick demonstration code
• Anatomy of the SLUBStick technique
• SLUBStick explained

Notes and References

1. Web site: Linux kernel impacted by new SLUBStick cross-cache attack . Bill Toulas . Bleepingcomputer . 3 August 2024.
2. Web site: SLUBStick: Arbitrary Memory Writes through Practical Software Cross-Cache Attacks within the Linux Kernel . Lukas Maar, Stefan Gast, Martin Unterguggenberger, Mathias Oberhuber, and Stefan Mangard . 16 August 2024 . USENIX.