CVE-2017-7472 Denial of service in Linux kernel before 4.10.13

What is CVE-2017-7472?

CVE-2017-7472 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 11 May 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

The KEYS subsystem in the Linux kernel before 4.10.13 allows local users to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via a series of KEY_REQKEY_DEFL_THREAD_KEYRING keyctl_set_reqkey_keyring calls.

Weakness: CWE-404

Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-7472?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2017-7472?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2017-7472 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2017-7472 exists.

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

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-2017-7472, GHSA-77r7-v55r-g5r7, UBUNTU-CVE-2017-7472.