CVE-2019-6974 Use after free in n/a

What is CVE-2019-6974?

CVE-2019-6974 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 15 Feb 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

In the Linux kernel before 4.20.8, kvm_ioctl_create_device in virt/kvm/kvm_main.c mishandles reference counting because of a race condition, leading to a use-after-free.

Weakness: CWE-416, CWE-362

Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-6974?

It affects 24 products.

Products include Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Debian Linux, F5 Big-Ip Access Policy Manager, F5 Big-Ip Advanced Firewall Manager, F5 Big-Ip Analytics, F5 Big-Ip Application Acceleration Manager and 18 more.

How do I fix CVE-2019-6974?

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-2019-6974 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2019-6974 exists.

Public exploit code: 2 Exploit-DB entries.

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-2019-6974, GHSA-gvrg-rwmc-m69h, UBUNTU-CVE-2019-6974.