CVE-2015-8709

Description

A privilege-escalation vulnerability was discovered in the Linux kernel built with User Namespace (CONFIG_USER_NS) support. The flaw occurred when the ptrace() system call was used on a root-owned process to enter a user namespace. A privileged namespace user could exploit this flaw to potentially escalate their privileges on the system, outside the original namespace.

Statement

This issue does not affect the versions of the kernel package as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6, 7 and Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2.

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).

The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.

CVSS v2 Score Breakdown

Red HatNVDcve.org
Base Score66.9N/A
Attack VectorLocalLocalN/A
Access ComplexityHighMediumN/A
AuthenticationSingleNoneN/A
Confidentiality ImpactCompleteCompleteN/A
Integrity ImpactCompleteCompleteN/A
Availability ImpactCompleteCompleteN/A

Vector

Red Hat: AV:L/AC:H/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C

NVD: AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

CWE-271

Access Control

Technical Impact: Gain Privileges or Assume Identity

If privileges are not dropped, neither are access rights of the user. Often these rights can be prevented from being dropped.

Access Control,Non-Repudiation

Technical Impact: Gain Privileges or Assume Identity; Hide Activities

If privileges are not dropped, in some cases the system may record actions as the user which is being impersonated rather than the impersonator.

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