CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2019-13272

Improper Privilege Management

Published: Jul 17, 2019 | Modified: Nov 07, 2023
CVSS 3.x
7.8
HIGH
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.x
7.2 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu

In the Linux kernel before 5.1.17, ptrace_link in kernel/ptrace.c mishandles the recording of the credentials of a process that wants to create a ptrace relationship, which allows local users to obtain root access by leveraging certain scenarios with a parent-child process relationship, where a parent drops privileges and calls execve (potentially allowing control by an attacker). One contributing factor is an object lifetime issue (which can also cause a panic). Another contributing factor is incorrect marking of a ptrace relationship as privileged, which is exploitable through (for example) Polkits pkexec helper with PTRACE_TRACEME. NOTE: SELinux deny_ptrace might be a usable workaround in some environments.

Weakness

The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Linux_kernel Linux 4.10 *
Linux_kernel Linux 4.20 *
Linux_kernel Linux 4.15 *
Linux_kernel Linux 3.16.52 *
Linux_kernel Linux 4.9.1 *
Linux_kernel Linux 4.1.39 *
Linux_kernel Linux 4.4.40 *
Linux_kernel Linux 4.8.16 *

Potential Mitigations

References