Security Bulletin: IBM Netezza Host Management is affected by the vulnerability known as Variant 4 or SpectreNG.

Summary

Open Source Kernel is used by IBM Netezza Host Management. IBM Netezza Host Management has addressed the applicable CVE.

Vulnerability Details

CVEID:CVE-2018-3639
**DESCRIPTION:*Multiple Intel CPUs could allow a local attacker to obtain sensitive information, caused by utilizing sequences of speculative execution and speculative execution of memory reads before the addresses of all prior memory writes are known. By conducting targeted cache side-channel attacks, an attacker could exploit this vulnerability to bypass security restrictions and gain read access to privileged memory. Note: This vulnerability is the Speculative Store Bypass (SSB), also known as Variant 4 or “SpectreNG”.
CVSS Base Score: 4.3
CVSS Temporal Score: See <https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/143569&gt; for the current score
CVSS Environmental Score: Undefined
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:N/A:N)

Affected Products and Versions

IBM Netezza Host Management 5.4.9 - 5.4.21

Remediation/Fixes

To resolve the reported CVEs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) on following platforms :

PureData System for Analytics N3001
PureData System for Analytics N200x
PureData System for Analytics N1001
IBM Netezza High Capacity Appliance C1000
IBM Netezza 1000
IBM Netezza 100

Update to the following IBM Netezza Host Management release :

Customers who have enrolled for the IBM Netezza PDA OS Security upgrade program can avail the fixes detailed above through following monthly upgrade patch:

The Netezza Host Management software contains the latest RHEL updates for the operating systems certified for use on IBM Netezza/PureData System for Analytics appliances. IBM recommends upgrading to the latest Netezza Host Management version to ensure that your hosts have the latest fixes, security changes, and operating system updates. IBM Support can assist you with planning for the Netezza Host Management and operating system upgrades to your appliances.

For more details on IBM Netezza Host Management security patching:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Security Patching for IBM PureData System for Analytics appliances

NOTE:

During Spectre & Meltdown variant #4 performance testing we could observe upto 11% degradation for unload and upto 15% degradation for full backup.

Performance impact depends on the workload as well as hardware platform.