CVE-2019-13272

critical-risk
Published 2019-07-17

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 incorrect marking of a ptrace relationship as privileged, which is exploitable through (for example) Polkit's pkexec helper with PTRACE_TRACEME. NOTE: SELinux deny_ptrace might be a usable workaround in some environments.

Do I need to act?

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80.6% chance of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS score — higher than 19% of all CVEs
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CISA KEV: actively exploited in the wild
On the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog — federal agencies must patch
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4 public exploits available
47133, 47163, 50541 and 1 more
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Patch status unknown
Check vendor advisories for fix availability and mitigation guidance
7
CVSS 7.8/10 High
LOCAL / LOW complexity

References (59)

and 39 more references
81
/ 100
critical-risk
Severity 24/34 · High
Exploitability 34/34 · Critical
Exposure 23/34 · High