Resource exhaustion in Linux kernel

1) Resource exhaustion

EUVDB-ID: #VU34939

Risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 4.8 [CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2011-1474

CWE-ID: CWE-400 - Resource exhaustion

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a local authenticated user to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

A locally locally exploitable DOS vulnerability was found in pax-linux versions 2.6.32.33-test79.patch, 2.6.38-test3.patch, and 2.6.37.4-test14.patch. A bad bounds check in arch_get_unmapped_area_topdown triggered by programs doing an mmap after a MAP_GROWSDOWN mmap will create an infinite loop condition without releasing the VM semaphore eventually leading to a system crash.

Mitigation

Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Linux kernel: 2.6.32.33 - 2.6.38

External links

http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2011/q1/579
http://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2011-1474

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.