Kernel Samepage Merging (KSM) in the Linux kernel 2.6.32 through 4.x does not prevent use of a write-timing side channel, which allows guest OS users to defeat the ASLR protection mechanism on other guest OS instances via a Cross-VM ASL INtrospection (CAIN) attack. NOTE: the vendor states "Basically if you care about this attack vector, disable deduplication." Share-until-written approaches for memory conservation among mutually untrusting tenants are inherently detectable for information disclosure, and can be classified as potentially misunderstood behaviors rather than vulnerabilities
Severity
CVSS 3.1
3.3 low
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
EPSS
0.9% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days; higher than 60% of CVEs (scores of 2026-10-31)