Description
kernel/trace/ftrace.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.35.5, when debugfs is enabled, does not properly handle interaction between mutex possession and llseek operations, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and outage of all function tracing files) via an lseek call on a file descriptor associated with the set_ftrace_filter file.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Red Hat
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| RHEL 6 | perf +14 | 2.6.32-71.7.1.el6 | RHSA-2010:0842 |
Advisories 1
- RHSA-2010:0842 Red Hat Security Advisory: kernel security and bug fix update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Jun 28, 2026
References
- http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.35.5
- USN-1041-1 vendor-advisory
- SUSE-SA:2011:007 vendor-advisory
- RHSA-2010:0842 vendor-advisory
- ADV-2011-0298 vdb-entry
- SUSE-SA:2010:050 vendor-advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=631623
- 42758 third-party-advisory
- http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=9c55cb12c1c172e2d51e85fbb5a4796ca86b77e7
- 43684 vdb-entry
- ADV-2011-0070 vdb-entry