CVE-2019-13272: Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Vulnerability Alert
Recently, Linux officially fixed a local privilege vulnerability in the Linux kernel, CVE-2019-13272. Through this vulnerability, an attacker can promote a normal privileged user to root privilege.
Vulnerability Description
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 an 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.
Affected Version
- Linux Kernel < 5.1.17
Solution
- Patch your Linux Kernel 5.1.17
- Upgrade Linux Kernel to the latest version
