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Fencer Intel
low 2.1

CVE-2015-3291 json

arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S in the Linux kernel before 4.1.6 on the x86_64 platform does not properly determine when nested NMI processing is…

published 2015-08-31 11 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2015-3338

cvss
2.1
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 34%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S in the Linux kernel before 4.1.6 on the x86_64 platform does not properly determine when nested NMI processing is occurring, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (skipped NMI) by modifying the rsp register, issuing a syscall instruction, and triggering an NMI.

Patch / fix

  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.0.8-2

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2015-3291

  • linux Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 3.13.0-59.98
  • linux-lts-vivid Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 3.19.0-25.26~14.04.1
  • linux-lts-utopic Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 3.16.0-45.60~14.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2015-3291

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2015-3291 updated cvss 1.9

kernel: x86/nmi: malicious userspace programs can cause the kernel to skip NMIs

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 kernel-rt, mrg-rt-release, kernel-rt-trace, kernel-rt-vanilla, kernel-rt-firmware
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.40% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 34% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 2.1 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.