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SYNTHESIS OF THE VULNERABILITY

A local attacker can force the connector driver to use all system
memory, which halts the system.

Severity: 1/4

Consequences: denial of service of computer

Provenance: user shell

Means of attack: no proof of concept, no attack

Ability of attacker: expert (4/4)

Confidence: confirmed by the editor (5/5)

Diffusion of the vulnerable configuration: high (3/3)

Creation date: 03/02/2010

IMPACTED PRODUCTS

– Linux kernel

DESCRIPTION OF THE VULNERABILITY

Sockets of type NETLINK are used to exchange messages between the
user and the kernel.

The connector driver is based on the NETLINK_CONNECTOR family, and
implements a queue and a notification system.

However, a local attacker can send several NETLINK_CONNECTOR
messages, in order to progressively use all kernel memory.

A local attacker can thus generate a denial of service.

CHARACTERISTICS

Identifiers: BID-38058, CVE-2010-0410, VIGILANCE-VUL-9405

http://vigilance.fr/vulnerability/Linux-kernel-denial-of-service-via-connector-9405