# CVE-2017-1000255: Memory corruption in n/a

> A local attacker on PowerPC Linux can corrupt kernel memory via crafted signal frames, potentially achieving code execution or privilege escalation.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N`)
- **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:** 30 Oct 2017
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2017-1000255, GHSA-7w7v-hmqg-8956, UBUNTU-CVE-2017-1000255

## What is CVE-2017-1000255?

CVE-2017-1000255 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 30 Oct 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

On Linux running on PowerPC hardware (Power8 or later) a user process can craft a signal frame and then do a sigreturn so that the kernel will take an exception (interrupt), and use the r1 value *from the signal frame* as the kernel stack pointer. As part of the exception entry the content of the signal frame is written to the kernel stack, allowing an attacker to overwrite arbitrary locations with arbitrary values. The exception handling does produce an oops, and a panic if panic_on_oops=1, but only after kernel memory has been over written. This flaw was introduced in commit: "5d176f751ee3 (powerpc: tm: Enable transactional memory (TM) lazily for userspace)" which was merged upstream into v4.9-rc1. Please note that kernels built with CONFIG_PPC_TRANSACTIONAL_MEM=n are not vulnerable.

Weakness: CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-1000255?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-1000255?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2017-1000255 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-1000255 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-1000255 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-1000255 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 30 Oct 2017. 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-2017-1000255 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. 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-2017-1000255/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-1000255/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-1000255
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-1000255
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-1000255

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-1000255/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.