Vulnerability identifier: #VU31400

Vulnerability 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-2006-5331

CWE-ID: CWE-19

Exploitation vector: Local

Exploit availability: No

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

Vendor: Linux Foundation

Description

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

The altivec_unavailable_exception function in arch/powerpc/kernel/traps.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.19 on 64-bit systems mishandles the case where CONFIG_ALTIVEC is defined and the CPU actually supports Altivec, but the Altivec support was not detected by the kernel, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (panic) by triggering execution of an Altivec instruction.

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Linux kernel: 2.6.0 - 2.6.18.8

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External links
http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=6c4841c2b6c32a134f9f36e5e08857138cc12b10
http://www.linuxgrill.com/anonymous/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.19
http://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=213229
http://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/6c4841c2b6c32a134f9f36e5e08857138cc12b10

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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.