CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2014-7970

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Published: Oct 13, 2014 | Modified: Apr 12, 2025
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
4.9 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C
RedHat/V2
1 LOW
AV:L/AC:H/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:P
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu
MEDIUM

The pivot_root implementation in fs/namespace.c in the Linux kernel through 3.17 does not properly interact with certain locations of a chroot directory, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (mount-tree loop) via . (dot) values in both arguments to the pivot_root system call.

Weakness

The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource, thereby enabling an actor to influence the amount of resources consumed, eventually leading to the exhaustion of available resources.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Suse_linux_enterprise_server Novell 11.0-sp3 (including) 11.0-sp3 (including)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 RedHat kernel-rt-0:3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7 *
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 RedHat kernel-0:3.10.0-693.el7 *
Linux Ubuntu bionic *
Linux Ubuntu esm-infra-legacy/trusty *
Linux Ubuntu focal *
Linux Ubuntu lucid *
Linux Ubuntu precise *
Linux Ubuntu trusty *
Linux Ubuntu trusty/esm *
Linux Ubuntu upstream *
Linux Ubuntu utopic *
Linux-armadaxp Ubuntu precise *
Linux-armadaxp Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-aws Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-aws Ubuntu focal *
Linux-aws Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-aws-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-aws-5.4 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-aws-fips Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-aws-fips Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-aws-hwe Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-azure Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-azure Ubuntu esm-infra/bionic *
Linux-azure Ubuntu focal *
Linux-azure Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-azure Ubuntu trusty/esm *
Linux-azure Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-azure-4.15 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-azure-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-azure-5.4 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-azure-6.11 Ubuntu noble *
Linux-azure-fde Ubuntu esm-infra/focal *
Linux-azure-fde Ubuntu focal *
Linux-azure-fde-5.15 Ubuntu esm-infra/focal *
Linux-azure-fde-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-azure-fips Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-azure-fips Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-bluefield Ubuntu focal *
Linux-ec2 Ubuntu lucid *
Linux-ec2 Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-flo Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-flo Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-flo Ubuntu utopic *
Linux-flo Ubuntu vivid *
Linux-flo Ubuntu vivid/stable-phone-overlay *
Linux-flo Ubuntu wily *
Linux-flo Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-flo Ubuntu yakkety *
Linux-fsl-imx51 Ubuntu lucid *
Linux-fsl-imx51 Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-gcp Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-gcp Ubuntu esm-infra/bionic *
Linux-gcp Ubuntu focal *
Linux-gcp Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-gcp-4.15 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-gcp-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-gcp-5.4 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-gcp-6.11 Ubuntu noble *
Linux-gcp-fips Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-gcp-fips Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-gke Ubuntu esm-infra/focal *
Linux-gke Ubuntu focal *
Linux-gke Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-gkeop Ubuntu esm-infra/focal *
Linux-gkeop Ubuntu focal *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu utopic *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu vivid *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu wily *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu yakkety *
Linux-goldfish Ubuntu zesty *
Linux-grouper Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-grouper Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-grouper Ubuntu utopic *
Linux-hwe Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-hwe Ubuntu esm-infra/bionic *
Linux-hwe Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-hwe-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-hwe-5.4 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-hwe-6.11 Ubuntu noble *
Linux-hwe-edge Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-hwe-edge Ubuntu esm-infra/bionic *
Linux-hwe-edge Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-ibm Ubuntu focal *
Linux-ibm-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-ibm-5.4 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-intel-iot-realtime Ubuntu jammy *
Linux-intel-iotg-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-iot Ubuntu focal *
Linux-kvm Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-kvm Ubuntu focal *
Linux-kvm Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-linaro-omap Ubuntu precise *
Linux-linaro-omap Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-linaro-shared Ubuntu precise *
Linux-linaro-shared Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-linaro-vexpress Ubuntu precise *
Linux-linaro-vexpress Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11 Ubuntu noble *
Linux-lts-quantal Ubuntu precise *
Linux-lts-quantal Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-raring Ubuntu precise *
Linux-lts-raring Ubuntu precise/esm *
Linux-lts-raring Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-saucy Ubuntu precise *
Linux-lts-saucy Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-trusty Ubuntu precise *
Linux-lts-trusty Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-utopic Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-lts-utopic Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-vivid Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-wily Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-lts-xenial Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-maguro Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-maguro Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-mako Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-mako Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-mako Ubuntu utopic *
Linux-mako Ubuntu vivid *
Linux-mako Ubuntu vivid/stable-phone-overlay *
Linux-mako Ubuntu wily *
Linux-mako Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-mako Ubuntu yakkety *
Linux-manta Ubuntu trusty *
Linux-manta Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-manta Ubuntu utopic *
Linux-manta Ubuntu vivid *
Linux-manta Ubuntu wily *
Linux-mvl-dove Ubuntu lucid *
Linux-mvl-dove Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-oracle Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-oracle Ubuntu focal *
Linux-oracle Ubuntu xenial *
Linux-oracle-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-oracle-5.4 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-qcm-msm Ubuntu lucid *
Linux-qcm-msm Ubuntu precise *
Linux-qcm-msm Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-raspi Ubuntu focal *
Linux-raspi-5.4 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-raspi-realtime Ubuntu noble *
Linux-raspi2 Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-raspi2 Ubuntu esm-infra/focal *
Linux-raspi2 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-raspi2 Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-raspi2 Ubuntu vivid/ubuntu-core *
Linux-realtime Ubuntu jammy *
Linux-realtime Ubuntu noble *
Linux-riscv Ubuntu esm-infra/focal *
Linux-riscv Ubuntu focal *
Linux-riscv Ubuntu jammy *
Linux-riscv Ubuntu noble *
Linux-riscv-5.15 Ubuntu focal *
Linux-snapdragon Ubuntu bionic *
Linux-snapdragon Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-ti-omap4 Ubuntu precise *
Linux-ti-omap4 Ubuntu upstream *
Linux-xilinx-zynqmp Ubuntu focal *

Extended Description

Limited resources include memory, file system storage, database connection pool entries, and CPU. If an attacker can trigger the allocation of these limited resources, but the number or size of the resources is not controlled, then the attacker could cause a denial of service that consumes all available resources. This would prevent valid users from accessing the product, and it could potentially have an impact on the surrounding environment. For example, a memory exhaustion attack against an application could slow down the application as well as its host operating system. There are at least three distinct scenarios which can commonly lead to resource exhaustion:

Resource exhaustion problems are often result due to an incorrect implementation of the following situations:

Potential Mitigations

  • Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either:

  • The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question.

  • The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute – and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker.

References