CVE-2014-0205
Description
A flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel's futex subsystem handled reference counting when requeuing futexes during futex_wait(). A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to zero out the reference counter of an inode or an mm struct that backs up the memory area of the futex, which could lead to a use-after-free flaw, resulting in a system crash or, potentially, privilege escalation.
Statement
This issue does not affect the Linux kernel packages as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and Red Hat Enterprise MRG-2.
Future Linux kernel updates for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 may address this issue.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v2 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 6.9 | 6.9 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Local | Local | N/A |
| Access Complexity | Medium | Medium | N/A |
| Authentication | None | None | N/A |
| Confidentiality Impact | Complete | Complete | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | Complete | Complete | N/A |
| Availability Impact | Complete | Complete | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
NVD: AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)
An adversary that can cause a resource counter to become inaccurate may be able to create situations where resources are not accounted for and not released, thus causing resources to become scarce for future needs.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
An adversary that can cause a resource counter to become inaccurate may be able to force an error that causes the product to crash or exit out of its current operation.
Acknowledgements
This issue was discovered by Mateusz Guzik (Red Hat).
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