Avery serious security problem has been found in the Linux kernel. A 0-day local privilege escalation vulnerability has existed since 2012. This bug affects millions of Android or Linux applications to escalate privileges. Any server or desktop (32 or 64 bit) with Linux Kernel version 3.8+ is vulnerable. How do I fix this problem?
The bug
As per the original research post:
CVE-2016-0728 is caused by a reference leak in the keyrings facility. Before we dive into the details, let’s cover some background required to understand the bug. It can successfully escalates privileges from a local user to root.
A list of affected Linux distros
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- CentOS Linux 7
- Scientific Linux 7
- Debian Linux stable 8.x (jessie)
- Debian Linux testing 9.x (stretch)
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP1
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP1
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension 12
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension 12 SP1
- Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr)
- Ubuntu Linux 15.04 (Vivid Vervet)
- Ubuntu Linux 15.10 (Wily Werewolf)
- Opensuse Linux LEAP and version 13.2