CVE-2010-4243 Denial of service in n/a

Medium 4.9 Published 22 Jan 2011 Updated 7 Aug 2024

Local attackers can cause a denial of service via memory consumption by exploiting a flaw in the Linux kernel's OOM Killer handling of exec system calls.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Any signed-in user
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2010-4243?

CVE-2010-4243 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 22 Jan 2011. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

fs/exec.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.37 does not enable the OOM Killer to assess use of stack memory by arrays representing the (1) arguments and (2) environment, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via a crafted exec system call, aka an "OOM dodging issue," a related issue to CVE-2010-3858.

Weakness: CWE-400

Which versions are affected by CVE-2010-4243?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2010-4243?

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-2010-4243 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2010-4243 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code: 1 Exploit-DB entry.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-rj5f-f43f-cfhc.