CVE-2017-2618

Published: 9 February 2017

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's handling of clearing SELinux attributes on /proc/pid/attr files before 4.9.10. An empty (null) write to this file can crash the system by causing the system to attempt to access unmapped kernel memory.

From the Ubuntu Security Team

It was discovered that SELinux in the Linux kernel did not properly handle empty writes to /proc/pid/attr. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash).

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

this code is sick from 1da177e4, commit bb646cdb mentioned in the fix is where this flaw can cause problem.

Status

Severity score breakdown

References

• https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2017-2618
• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3361-1
• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3381-1
• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-3381-2
• NVD
• Launchpad
• Debian