Vulnerability identifier: #VU13339

Vulnerability risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 5.7 [CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2018-12232

CWE-ID: CWE-476

Exploitation vector: Local

Exploit availability: No

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

Vendor: Linux Foundation

Description

The vulnerability allows a local attacker to cause DoS condition on the target system.

The vulnerability exists in the net/socket.c source code file due to the fchownat() function does not increment the reference count of a socket file descriptor, which could trigger a race condition between the sock_close() and sockfs_setattr() functions. A local attacker can submit specially crafted input, trigger a NULL pointer dereference condition and cause the system to crash..

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Linux kernel: 4.17.1, 2.4.17, 4.16 - 4.16.15, 4.15 - 4.15.18

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External links
http://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=6d8c50dcb029872b298eea...

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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.