#VU92856 Double free in Linux kernel - CVE-2008-2944

Vulnerability identifier: #VU92856

Vulnerability risk: Low

CVSSv4.0: 4.3 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear]

CVE-ID: CVE-2008-2944

CWE-ID: CWE-415

Exploitation vector: Local

Exploit availability: No

Vulnerable software:
Linux kernel
Operating systems & Components / Operating system

Vendor: Linux Foundation

Description

The vulnerability allows a local user to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

Double free vulnerability in the utrace support in the Linux kernel, probably 2.6.18, in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 and Fedora Core 6 (FC6) allows local users to cause a denial of service (oops), as demonstrated by a crash when running the GNU GDB testsuite, a different vulnerability than CVE-2008-2365.

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's repository.

Vulnerable software versions

Linux kernel: All versions

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External links
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=207002
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=449359
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/43556

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Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.