CVE-2004-0138 Denial of service in n/a

What is CVE-2004-0138?

CVE-2004-0138 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 31 May 2006. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

Official description

The ELF loader in Linux kernel 2.4 before 2.4.25 allows local users to cause a denial of service (crash) via a crafted ELF file with an interpreter with an invalid arch (architecture), which triggers a BUG() when an invalid VMA is unmapped.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2004-0138?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2004-0138?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2004-0138 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2004-0138 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as GHSA-qrfc-2g95-v53w.