CVE-2020-8694

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's implementation of Intel's Running Average Power Limit (RAPL) implementation. A local attacker could infer secrets by measuring power usage and also infer private data by observing the power usage of calculations performed on the data.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

A temporary measure would be to remove the ability for non-root users to read the current RAPL energy reporting metrics.

This can be done with the command:

$ sudo chmod 400 /sys/class/powercap/intel_rapl/*/energy_uj

This mitigation will only work on the current boot and will need to be reapplied at each system boot to remain in effect.