SB2017120116 - Privilege escalation via USB device in Linux kernel
Published: December 1, 2017
Security Bulletin ID
SB2017120116
Severity
Low
Patch available
YES
Number of vulnerabilities
1
Exploitation vector
Physical access
Highest impact
Code execution
Breakdown by Severity
- Low
- Medium
- High
- Critical
Description
This security bulletin contains information about 1 security vulnerability.
1) NULL pointer dereference (CVE-ID: CVE-2017-15102)
The vulnerability allows a local user to escalate privileges.The vulnerability exists due to a race condition and a NULL pointer dereference within tower_probe() function in drivers/usb/misc/legousbtower.c in Linux kernel before 4.8.1. A local user with physical access to the computer and ability to insert USB flash drive can execute arbitrary code with escalated privileges. The USB device would have to delay the control message in tower_probe and accept the control urb in tower_open whilst guest code initiated a write to the device file as tower_delete is called from the error in tower_probe.
According to vendor this security issue exists since 2003.
Remediation
Install update from vendor's website.