CVE-2016-5195, known as "Dirty COW," is a race condition in the Linux kernel (versions 2.x through 4.x before 4.8.3) that allows local users to gain privileges by exploiting a copy-on-write (COW) feature to write to read-only memory. This vulnerability affects numerous Linux distributions including Canonical, Debian, Fedora, and Red Hat. With a CVSS score of 7.0 (High), it has a low attack complexity and can lead to complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The vulnerability is actively exploited in the wild, with multiple public exploit codes available on ExploitDB, and has garnered significant community discussion and media coverage.
| Vendor | Product | Version(s) | CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
12.04CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:-:*:*:* | ||
14.04CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:* | ||
16.04CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:* | ||
16.10CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | ||
>= 2.6.22, < 3.2.83CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
CVSS version used by this source: 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.1 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.
The average CVE in this peer group has 0.4 InfoSec Media, 0.1 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.
Race condition in mm/gup.c in the Linux kernel 2.x through 4.x before 4.8.3 allows local users to gain privileges by leveraging incorrect handling of a copy-on-write (COW) feature to write to a read-only memory mapping, as exploited in the wild in October 2016, aka "Dirty COW."
Nov 10, 2016kernel: mm: privilege escalation via MAP_PRIVATE COW breakage
Oct 19, 2016