Vigil@nce: Linux kernel, denial of service via inotify
April 2011 by Vigil@nce
This bulletin was written by Vigil@nce : http://vigilance.fr/
SYNTHESIS OF THE VULNERABILITY
A local attacker can use the inotify feature, in order to create a
double memory free, which stops the system.
– Severity: 1/4
– Creation date: 11/04/2011
IMPACTED PRODUCTS
– Linux kernel
DESCRIPTION OF THE VULNERABILITY
The inotify feature can be used to track events on a file or a
directory: access, open, delete, etc.
The inotify_init() function initializes a monitoring. If a user
previously used all file descriptors, this function fails, and
frees the memory area storing event groups. However, this memory
area is freed twice.
A local attacker can therefore use the inotify feature, in order
to create a double memory free, which stops the system.
This vulnerability was created by a bad patch for
VIGILANCE-VUL-10148 (https://vigilance.fr/tree/1/10148).
ACCESS TO THE COMPLETE VIGIL@NCE BULLETIN
http://vigilance.fr/vulnerability/Linux-kernel-denial-of-service-via-inotify-10532