Privilege escalation in Linux kernel PEEKUSER and POKEUSER

1) Buffer overflow

EUVDB-ID: #VU65005

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-2022-32981

CWE-ID: CWE-119 - Memory corruption

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a local user to escalate privileges on the system.

The vulnerability exists due to a boundary error in ptrace PEEKUSER and POKEUSER when accessing floating point registers on powerpc 32-bit platforms. A local user can trigger buffer overflow and execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges.

Mitigation

Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Linux kernel: before 5.19 rc1

External links

http://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/powerpc/linux.git/commit/?id=8e1278444446fc97778a5e5c99bca1ce0bbc5ec9
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2022/06/14/3

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.