CVE-2017-1000253 Linux Kernel PIE Stack Buffer Corruption Vulnerability

What is CVE-2017-1000253?

CVE-2017-1000253 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Oct 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Linux distributions that have not patched their long-term kernels with https://git.kernel.org/linus/a87938b2e246b81b4fb713edb371a9fa3c5c3c86 (committed on April 14, 2015). This kernel vulnerability was fixed in April 2015 by commit a87938b2e246b81b4fb713edb371a9fa3c5c3c86 (backported to Linux 3.10.77 in May 2015), but it was not recognized as a security threat. With CONFIG_ARCH_BINFMT_ELF_RANDOMIZE_PIE enabled, and a normal top-down address allocation strategy, load_elf_binary() will attempt to map a PIE binary into an address range immediately below mm->mmap_base. Unfortunately, load_elf_ binary() does not take account of the need to allocate sufficient space for the entire binary which means that, while the first PT_LOAD segment is mapped below mm->mmap_base, the subsequent PT_LOAD segment(s) end up being mapped above mm->mmap_base into the are that is supposed to be the "gap" between the stack and the binary.

Weakness: CWE-119

Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-1000253?

It affects 3 products.

Products include Centos Centos, Linux kernel, Redhat Enterprise Linux.

How do I fix CVE-2017-1000253?

Apply the vendor's patch. US federal agencies must fix it by 30 Sep 2024.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2017-1000253 being exploited?

Yes. Attackers have exploited CVE-2017-1000253 in the wild since at least 9 Sep 2024, including in ransomware campaigns.

Public exploit code: 1 Exploit-DB entry and 2 proofs of concept on GitHub.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2011-4144 Privilege escalation in n/a Medium 6.8
• CVE-2007-6283 Information disclosure in n/a Medium 4.9

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

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

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2017-1000253, GHSA-rm92-8pw8-34fm, RHSA-2017:2793, RHSA-2017:2794, RHSA-2017:2795, RHSA-2017:2796 and 9 more.