NULL pointer dereference in Linux kernel

1) NULL pointer dereference

EUVDB-ID: #VU44353

Risk: Medium

CVSSv3.1: 5.7 [CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H/E:U/RL:U/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2011-4325

CWE-ID: CWE-476 - NULL Pointer Dereference

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

The vulnerability exists due to a NULL pointer dereference error in Linux kernel before 2.6.31-rc6 calls certain functions without properly initializing certain data, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and O_DIRECT oops), as demonstrated using diotest4 from LTP. A remote attacker can perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

Mitigation

Cybersecurity Help is currently unaware of any official solution to address this vulnerability.

Vulnerable software versions

Linux kernel: 2.6.0 - 2.6.31

External links

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=1ae88b2e4
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/51366
http://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=755455
http://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/72297

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.