CVE-2016-5195

Published: 19 October 2016

Race condition in mm/gup.c in the Linux kernel 2.x through 4.x before 4.8.3 allows local users to gain privileges by leveraging incorrect handling of a copy-on-write (COW) feature to write to a read-only memory mapping, as exploited in the wild in October 2016, aka "Dirty COW."

From the Ubuntu security team

It was discovered that a race condition existed in the memory manager of the Linux kernel when handling copy-on-write breakage of private read-only memory mappings. A local attacker could use this to gain administrative privileges.

Priority

High

CVSS 3 base score: 7.8

Status

Notes

android kernels (flo, goldfish, grouper, maguro, mako and manta) are
not supported on the Ubuntu Touch 14.10 and earlier preview kernels
linux-lts-saucy no longer receives official support
linux-lts-quantal no longer receives official support

References

• https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2016-5195
• https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-3107-1
• https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-3106-4
• https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-3106-3
• https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-3106-2
• https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-3106-1
• https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-3105-2
• https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-3105-1
• https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-3104-1
• https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-3107-2
• https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-3104-2
• NVD
• Launchpad
• Debian

Bugs

• https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1633547