CVE-2010-4655

net/core/ethtool.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.36 does not initialize certain data structures, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel heap memory by leveraging the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability for an ethtool ioctl call.

Weakness

The product does not initialize or incorrectly initializes a resource, which might leave the resource in an unexpected state when it is accessed or used.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

• Use a language that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
• For example, in Java, if the programmer does not explicitly initialize a variable, then the code could produce a compile-time error (if the variable is local) or automatically initialize the variable to the default value for the variable’s type. In Perl, if explicit initialization is not performed, then a default value of undef is assigned, which is interpreted as 0, false, or an equivalent value depending on the context in which the variable is accessed.

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/26.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/29.html

References

• http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=b00916b189d13a615ff05c9242201135992fcda3
• http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2011/01/24/9
• http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2011/01/25/3
• http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2011/01/25/4
• http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2011/01/25/5
• http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2011/01/28/1
• http://secunia.com/advisories/46397
• http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.36
• http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/520102/100/0/threaded
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/45972
• http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1146-1
• http://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2011-0012.html
• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=672428
• https://lkml.org/lkml/2010/10/7/297