Privilege escalation in Linux Kernel

1) Privilege escalation

EUVDB-ID: #VU5388

Risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 6.8 [CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2016-7097

CWE-ID: CWE-264 - Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a local attacker to gain elevated privileges on the target system.

The weakness exists due to the setgid bit being preserved during a setxattr call by the filesystem implementation. A local attacker can leverage the existence of a setgid program to gain group privileges.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability results in privileges escalation.

Mitigation

Update to version 4.9.6.

Vulnerable software versions

Linux kernel: 4.0.1 - 4.8.2

External links

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.9.6
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.1.37

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.