Memory leak in Linux kernel

1) Memory leak

EUVDB-ID: #VU43959

Risk: Medium

CVSSv3.1: 5.9 [CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H/E:P/RL:U/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2010-4250

CWE-ID: CWE-401 - Missing release of memory after effective lifetime

Exploit availability: Yes

Description

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

The vulnerability exists due to memory leak within the inotify_init1 function in fs/notify/inotify/inotify_user.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.37 allows local users to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via vectors involving failed attempts to create files. A remote attacker can perform a denial of service attack.

Mitigation

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

Vulnerable software versions

Linux kernel: 2.6.36.1 - 2.6.36.3

External links

http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.37
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=a2ae4cc9a16e211c8a128ba10d22a85431f093ab
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2010/11/24/11
http://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=656830
http://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/a2ae4cc9a16e211c8a128ba10d22a85431f093ab

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. However, proof of concept for this vulnerability is available.