CVE-2017-5551 Privilege escalation in n/a

What is CVE-2017-5551?

CVE-2017-5551 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 6 Feb 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

The simple_set_acl function in fs/posix_acl.c in the Linux kernel before 4.9.6 preserves the setgid bit during a setxattr call involving a tmpfs filesystem, which allows local users to gain group privileges by leveraging the existence of a setgid program with restrictions on execute permissions. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2016-7097.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-5551?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2017-5551?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2017-5551 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-5551 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

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

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2017-5551, GHSA-8v97-5c8j-7wmc, UBUNTU-CVE-2017-5551.