CVE-2017-15274

Description

A flaw was found in the implementation of associative arrays where the add_key systemcall and KEYCTL_UPDATE operations allowed for a NULL payload with a nonzero length. When accessing the payload within this length parameters value, an unprivileged user could trivially cause a NULL pointer dereference (kernel oops).

Statement

This issue affects the Linux kernel packages as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5,6,7, MRG-2 and realtime kernels.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 has transitioned to Production phase 3.
During the Production 3 Phase, Critical impact Security Advisories (RHSAs) and selected Urgent Priority Bug Fix Advisories (RHBAs) may be released as they become available.

At this time this bug is not meet this critera and is unlikley to be fixed for these releases.

The official life cycle policy can be reviewed here:

http://redhat.com/rhel/lifecycle

Future Linux kernel updates for the products in production phase 1 and 2, namely Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, 7 and MRG-2 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 v3 Score Breakdown

Red HatNVDcve.org
Base Score5.55.5N/A
Attack VectorLocalLocalN/A
Attack ComplexityLowLowN/A
Privileges RequiredLowLowN/A
User InteractionNoneNoneN/A
ScopeUnchangedUnchangedN/A
ConfidentialityNoneNoneN/A
Integrity ImpactNoneNoneN/A
Availability ImpactHighHighN/A

Vector

Red Hat: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

NVD: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

Availability

Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart

NULL pointer dereferences usually result in the failure of the process unless exception handling (on some platforms) is available and implemented. Even when exception handling is being used, it can still be very difficult to return the software to a safe state of operation.

Integrity,Confidentiality

Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; Read Memory; Modify Memory

In rare circumstances, when NULL is equivalent to the 0x0 memory address and privileged code can access it, then writing or reading memory is possible, which may lead to code execution.

Frequently Asked Questions

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