Vulnerabilities
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CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2010-4655

Improper Initialization

Published: Jul 18, 2011 | Modified: Apr 11, 2025
CVSS 3.x
5.5
MEDIUM
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
CVSS 2.x
2.1 LOW
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
RedHat/V2
1.2 LOW
AV:L/AC:H/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu
LOW
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Additional information
NVDhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2010-4655
CWEhttps://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/665.html

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

NameVendorStart VersionEnd Version
Linux_kernelLinux*2.6.36 (excluding)
MRG for RHEL-5RedHatkernel-rt-0:2.6.33.7-rt29.55.el5rt*
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4RedHatkernel-0:2.6.9-100.EL*
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5RedHatkernel-0:2.6.18-238.5.1.el5*
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6RedHatkernel-0:2.6.32-71.24.1.el6*
LinuxUbuntuhardy*
LinuxUbuntukarmic*
LinuxUbuntulucid*
LinuxUbuntumaverick*
LinuxUbuntuupstream*
Linux-ec2Ubuntukarmic*
Linux-ec2Ubuntulucid*
Linux-ec2Ubuntumaverick*
Linux-ec2Ubuntuupstream*
Linux-fsl-imx51Ubuntukarmic*
Linux-fsl-imx51Ubuntulucid*
Linux-fsl-imx51Ubuntuupstream*
Linux-lts-backport-maverickUbuntulucid*
Linux-lts-backport-maverickUbuntuupstream*
Linux-lts-backport-nattyUbuntuupstream*
Linux-mvl-doveUbuntukarmic*
Linux-mvl-doveUbuntulucid*
Linux-mvl-doveUbuntumaverick*
Linux-mvl-doveUbuntuupstream*
Linux-source-2.6.15Ubuntudapper*
Linux-source-2.6.15Ubuntuupstream*
Linux-ti-omap4Ubuntumaverick*
Linux-ti-omap4Ubuntuupstream*

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.

References

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