# CVE-2014-0196: Linux Kernel Race Condition

> Local attackers can exploit a race condition in the Linux kernel TTY driver to cause memory corruption, leading to system crashes or privilege escalation.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Yes, since 12 May 2023 (CISA KEV)
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 7 May 2014
- **Updated:** 22 Oct 2025
- **Also known as:** CVE-2014-9791, DEBIAN-CVE-2014-0196, GHSA-xwpg-vm43-3qwm, RHSA-2014:0512, RHSA-2014:0678, UBUNTU-CVE-2014-0196, USN-2204-1

## What is CVE-2014-0196?

CVE-2014-0196 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 7 May 2014. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The n_tty_write function in drivers/tty/n_tty.c in the Linux kernel through 3.14.3 does not properly manage tty driver access in the "LECHO & !OPOST" case, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (memory corruption and system crash) or gain privileges by triggering a race condition involving read and write operations with long strings.

Weakness: CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2014-0196?

It affects 30 products.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `kernel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-abi-whitelists` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-debug` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-debug-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-debug-devel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-devel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-doc` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-headers` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-tools` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-tools-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-tools-libs` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-tools-libs-devel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `perf` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `perf-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `python-perf` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `python-perf-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-abi-whitelists` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-debug` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-debug-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-debug-devel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-devel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-doc` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-headers` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-tools` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-tools-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-tools-libs` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-tools-libs-devel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `perf` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `perf-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `python-perf` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `python-perf-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-abi-whitelists` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-bootwrapper` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |
| `kernel-debug` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:3.10.0-123.1.2.el7 |

Products: Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Debian Linux, F5 Big-Ip Access Policy Manager, F5 Big-Ip Advanced Firewall Manager, F5 Big-Ip Analytics, F5 Big-Ip Application Acceleration Manager, F5 Big-Ip Application Security Manager, F5 Big-Ip Edge Gateway, F5 Big-Ip Global Traffic Manager, F5 Big-Ip Link Controller, F5 Big-Ip Local Traffic Manager, F5 Big-Ip Policy Enforcement Manager, F5 Big-Ip Protocol Security Module, F5 Big-Ip Wan Optimization Manager, F5 Big-Ip Webaccelerator, F5 Big-Iq Application Delivery Controller, F5 Big-Iq Centralized Management, F5 Big-Iq Cloud, F5 Big-Iq Cloud and Orchestration, F5 Big-Iq Device and 10 more.

## How do I fix CVE-2014-0196?

Apply the vendor's patch. US federal agencies must fix it by 2 Jun 2023.

## Is CVE-2014-0196 being exploited?

Yes. Attackers have exploited CVE-2014-0196 in the wild since at least 12 May 2023.

Public exploit code:

- CVE-2014-0196: Linux kernel pty layer race condition memory corruption (github_poc): https://github.com/tempbottle/CVE-2014-0196
- https://github.com/SunRain/CVE-2014-0196 (github_poc): https://github.com/SunRain/CVE-2014-0196
- Linux Kernel 3.14-rc1 < 3.15-rc4 (x64) - Raw Mode PTY Echo Race Condition Privilege Escalation (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux

- [CVE-2020-11651](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-11651/): SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2020-7247](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-7247/): OpenSMTPD Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2019-16928](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-16928/): Exim Out-of-bounds Write (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2018-6789](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6789/): Exim Buffer Overflow (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2015-2590](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-2590/): Oracle Java SE and Java SE Embedded Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2014-0196 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2014-0196 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 7 May 2014. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: Yes. Attackers have exploited CVE-2014-0196 in the wild since at least 12 May 2023.

Affected product: Canonical Ubuntu Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-0196/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-0196/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2014-0196
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-0196
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2014-0196

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-0196/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.