Skip to main content
veriom
Menu

Explore Veriom products, resources, and account pages.

CVE-2017-1000253Linux Kernel PIE Stack Buffer Corruption Vulnerability

Patch nowHigh7.8Exploited, CISA due date 2024-09-30EPSS 11%, higher than 96% of scored CVEs

CVE-2017-1000253 is a memory buffer error in Linux Kernel, rated high (7.8 on CVSS 3.1).

Why this priority: Exploited in the wild: listed in CISA's KEV catalog.

Published · Updated · NVD status: Analyzed

What it is

Code reads or writes outside the memory it was given, which can corrupt the process.

How it is reached

An attacker can exploit it by someone who can already run code or sign in on the machine, with an ordinary user account, and nobody has to click anything.

What an attacker gains

A successful attack can read the data it protects, change data or behaviour and take it offline. In practice, this kind of flaw lets an attacker crash the process, read memory, or in the worst case run code.

Is it being exploited?

CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2024-09-09: it is being exploited in the wild. CISA links it to ransomware campaigns. EPSS estimates a 11% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 96% of scored CVEs.

What to do

  1. Treat it as urgent: it is on CISA's KEV list. CISA's deadline for US federal agencies: 2024-09-30.
  2. Upgrade Linux Kernel to a fixed version for your release line (3.2.70, 3.4.109, 3.10.77). The patch notes are linked below.
  3. Limit who can run code or sign in on the hosts that run it.
  4. Check exposed instances for signs of compromise, not only for the version.

Description from NVD

Linux distributions that have not patched their long-term kernels with https://git.kernel.org/linus/a87938b2e246b81b4fb713edb371a9fa3c5c3c86 (committed on April 14, 2015). This kernel vulnerability was fixed in April 2015 by commit a87938b2e246b81b4fb713edb371a9fa3c5c3c86 (backported to Linux 3.10.77 in May 2015), but it was not recognized as a security threat. With CONFIG_ARCH_BINFMT_ELF_RANDOMIZE_PIE enabled, and a normal top-down address allocation strategy, load_elf_binary() will attempt to map a PIE binary into an address range immediately below mm->mmap_base. Unfortunately, load_elf_ binary() does not take account of the need to allocate sufficient space for the entire binary which means that, while the first PT_LOAD segment is mapped below mm->mmap_base, the subsequent PT_LOAD segment(s) end up being mapped above mm->mmap_base into the are that is supposed to be the "gap" between the stack and the binary.

What this means for your architecture.

A CVE names a product. Whether it matters depends on where that product sits in your systems: what reaches it, which trust boundary it guards and what it can reach once compromised. Veriom maps your components, their relationships and your trust boundaries from your code, cloud and delivery evidence, so you can see where a component like this sits. The radar itself does not look at your systems.

Components it touches

  • Operating systems on servers, workstations or devices. Everything on the host inherits the flaw.
  • Native code: operating systems, browsers and firmware. The flaw sits wherever native code reads untrusted data.
  • Network appliances and media or file parsers. The flaw sits wherever native code reads untrusted data.

Trust boundaries in play

  • Host boundary. The attacker needs a foothold on the machine first; the flaw turns a small foothold into a bigger one.
  • Wherever native code reads untrusted data. An attacker who crosses it can crash the process, read memory, or in the worst case run code.

Questions to answer about your own systems

  • Where does Linux Kernel run in your systems, and at which version?
  • Which of those hosts also run code or users you do not fully trust?
  • What can it reach once compromised: which data stores, secrets and services?
See how Veriom maps an architectureTake the interactive tour

Read more

Sources

  • CVE records and CVSS scores from the NVD CVE API. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
  • Exploitation status from CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
  • Exploit likelihood from FIRST’s Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), refreshed daily.
  • Explanations are written by Veriom from fixed templates over each record’s data, not by a person reviewing each CVE. Descriptions are quoted from the records as published.