CVE-2015-1421

Description

A use-after-free flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel's SCTP implementation handled authentication key reference counting during INIT collisions. A remote attacker could use this flaw to crash the system or, potentially, escalate their privileges on the system.

Statement

This issue did not affect the Linux kernel packages as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

This issue affects the Linux kernel packages as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2. Future Linux kernel updates for the respective releases 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 HatNVDcve.org
Base Score7.110N/A
Attack VectorNetworkNetworkN/A
Access ComplexityMediumLowN/A
AuthenticationNoneNoneN/A
Confidentiality ImpactNoneCompleteN/A
Integrity ImpactNoneCompleteN/A
Availability ImpactCompleteCompleteN/A

Vector

Red Hat: AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

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

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

Integrity

Technical Impact: Modify Memory

The use of previously freed memory may corrupt valid data, if the memory area in question has been allocated and used properly elsewhere.

Availability

Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart

If chunk consolidation occurs after the use of previously freed data, the process may crash when invalid data is used as chunk information.

Confidentiality

Technical Impact: Read Memory

Read operations on freed memory can sometimes leak sensitive information instead of causing a crash

Integrity,Confidentiality,Availability

Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands

If malicious data is entered before chunk consolidation can take place, it may be possible to take advantage of a write-what-where primitive to execute arbitrary code. If the newly allocated data happens to hold a class, in C++ for example, various function pointers may be scattered within the heap data. If one of these function pointers is overwritten with an address to valid shellcode, execution of arbitrary code can be achieved.

Acknowledgements

This issue was discovered by Sun Baoliang (Red Hat).

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