CVE-2019-13272 is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in the Linux kernel (before version 5.1.17) affecting various distributions like Canonical, Debian, and Red Hat. It stems from improper handling of ptrace relationships, specifically an object lifetime issue and incorrect privilege marking, which can be exploited through scenarios involving parent-child processes and the Polkit pkexec helper with PTRACE_TRACEME. This vulnerability carries a high CVSS score of 7.8, indicating a low-complexity attack that can lead to complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. It is actively exploited in the wild, with multiple public exploit modules available, including Metasploit and ExploitDB, and has garnered significant community discussion and media coverage.
| Vendor | Product | Version(s) | CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
>= 3.16.52, < 3.16.71CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | ||
>= 4.1.39, < 4.2CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | ||
>= 4.4.40, < 4.4.185CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | ||
>= 4.8.16, < 4.9CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | ||
>= 4.9.1, < 4.9.185CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
CVSS version used by this source: 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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, 0.2 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.
The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.
In the Linux kernel before 5.1.17, ptrace_link in kernel/ptrace.c mishandles the recording of the credentials of a process that wants to create a ptrace relationship, which allows local users to obtain root access by leveraging certain scenarios with a parent-child process relationship, where a parent drops privileges and calls execve (potentially allowing control by an attacker). One contributing factor is an object lifetime issue (which can also cause a panic). Another contributing factor is i
Jul 17, 2019kernel: broken permission and object lifetime handling for PTRACE_TRACEME
Jul 16, 2019