CVE-2016-4558 Use after free in n/a

What is CVE-2016-4558?

CVE-2016-4558 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 23 May 2016. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

The BPF subsystem in the Linux kernel before 4.5.5 mishandles reference counts, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (use-after-free) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted application on (1) a system with more than 32 Gb of memory, related to the program reference count or (2) a 1 Tb system, related to the map reference count.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-4558?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2016-4558?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.

Is CVE-2016-4558 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2016-4558 exists.

Public exploit code: 1 Exploit-DB entry.

Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux

• CVE-2020-11651 SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2020-7247 OpenSMTPD Remote Code Execution Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2019-16928 Exim Out-of-bounds Write Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2018-6789 Exim Buffer Overflow Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2015-2590 Oracle Java SE and Java SE Embedded Remote Code Execution Exploited Critical 9.8

All Canonical Ubuntu Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

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

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2016-4558, GHSA-283c-4h8h-4xmp, UBUNTU-CVE-2016-4558.