Vulnerability identifier: #VU1039

Vulnerability risk: Medium

CVSSv3.1:

CVE-ID: CVE-2016-5195

CWE-ID: CWE-362

Exploitation vector: Local

Exploit availability: Yes

Vulnerable software:
Linux kernel
Operating systems & Components / Operating system

Vendor: Linux Foundation

Description
The vulnerability allows a  local user to obtain elevated privileges on the target system.
The weakness is due to race condition in the kernel memory subsystem in the management of copy-on-write operations on read-only memory mappings that lets attackers to overwrite kernel memory and gain kernel-level privileges.
Successful exploitation of the vulnerability results in gaining of root privileges on the vulnerable system.

Note: the vulnerability was being actively exploited.

Mitigation
Update to version 4.9-rc2.
https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/testing/linux-4.9-rc2.tar.xz

Vulnerable software versions

Linux kernel: 2.6.0 - 4.8.3

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CPE

• cpe:2.3:o:linux_foundation:linux_kernel:2.6.9:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

External links
http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=19be0eaffa3ac7d8eb6784ad9...

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Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?