#VU95579 Resource exhaustion in Linux kernel - CVE-2006-3741

Vulnerability identifier: #VU95579

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-2006-3741

CWE-ID: CWE-400

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.

The perfmonctl system call (sys_perfmonctl) in Linux kernel 2.4.x and 2.6 before 2.6.18, when running on Itanium systems, does not properly track the reference count for file descriptors, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (file descriptor consumption).

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's repository.

Vulnerable software versions

Linux kernel: All versions

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External links
https://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2006-0689.html
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=204360
https://www.securityfocus.com/bid/20361
https://secunia.com/advisories/22279
https://secunia.com/advisories/22292
https://secunia.com/advisories/22382
https://support.avaya.com/elmodocs2/security/ASA-2006-249.htm
https://secunia.com/advisories/22945
https://www.us.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1233
https://secunia.com/advisories/23370
https://www.novell.com/linux/security/advisories/2006_79_kernel.html
https://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDKSA-2006:182
https://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDKSA-2007:025
https://secunia.com/advisories/23474
https://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2006/3937
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/29384
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A11250
https://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=b8444d00762703e1b6146fce12ce2684885f8bf6

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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.