CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2009-0935

Improper Locking

Published: Mar 18, 2009 | Modified: Feb 09, 2024
CVSS 3.x
5.5
MEDIUM
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS 2.x
4.7 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu

The inotify_read function in the Linux kernel 2.6.27 to 2.6.27.13, 2.6.28 to 2.6.28.2, and 2.6.29-rc3 allows local users to cause a denial of service (OOPS) via a read with an invalid address to an inotify instance, which causes the devices event list mutex to be unlocked twice and prevents proper synchronization of a data structure for the inotify instance.

Weakness

The product does not properly acquire or release a lock on a resource, leading to unexpected resource state changes and behaviors.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Linux_kernel Linux 2.6.27 2.6.27.13
Linux_kernel Linux 2.6.28 2.6.28.2
Linux_kernel Linux 2.6.29 2.6.29

Extended Description

Locking is a type of synchronization behavior that ensures that multiple independently-operating processes or threads do not interfere with each other when accessing the same resource. All processes/threads are expected to follow the same steps for locking. If these steps are not followed precisely - or if no locking is done at all - then another process/thread could modify the shared resource in a way that is not visible or predictable to the original process. This can lead to data or memory corruption, denial of service, etc.

Potential Mitigations

References