Description
Race condition in Linux kernel 2.6.15 to 2.6.17, when running on SMP platforms, allows local users to cause a denial of service (crash) by creating and exiting a large number of tasks, then accessing the /proc entry of a task that is exiting, which causes memory corruption that leads to a failure in the prune_dcache function or a BUG_ON error in include/linux/list.h.
Public exploits
Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.
Third-party code, not reviewed by us. Public PoCs are sometimes fake or contain malware. Read the code first and run it only in an isolated lab, against systems you are authorised to test.
Exploit-DB 1
- Linux Kernel 2.6.x - Proc dentry_unused Corruption Local Denial of Service EDB-27925 · dos · May 31, 2006 · verified
Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.
References
- 25847 vdb-entry
- linux-task-race-condition-dos(26746) vdb-entry
- ADV-2006-2070 vdb-entry
- 18183 vdb-entry
- [linux-kernel] 20060526 PROBLEM: /proc (procfs) task exit race condition causes a kernelcrash mailing-list
- 20349 third-party-advisory