# CVE-2014-7975: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Local attackers can bypass CAP_SYS_ADMIN checks to force the root filesystem read-only, causing denial of service and potential 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:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 13 Oct 2014
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2014-7975, GHSA-jvc4-gpm6-jw84, UBUNTU-CVE-2014-7975

## What is CVE-2014-7975?

CVE-2014-7975 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 13 Oct 2014. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The do_umount function in fs/namespace.c in the Linux kernel through 3.17 does not require the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability for do_remount_sb calls that change the root filesystem to read-only, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (loss of writability) by making certain unshare system calls, clearing the / MNT_LOCKED flag, and making an MNT_FORCE umount system call.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2014-7975?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2014-7975?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2014-7975 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2014-7975 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## 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-2014-7975 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2014-7975 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 13 Oct 2014. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2014-7975 in the wild and no public exploit code.

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-2014-7975/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-7975/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2014-7975
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-7975
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2014-7975

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-7975/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.