Local privilege escalation via writable shared mappings
Published Apr 12, 2022 · Updated Aug 4, 2024
Privilege escalation in the Android kernel allows local users to gain elevated privileges through a shared writable memory mapping. The change_pte_range optimization in mm/mprotect.c immediately marks eligible page-table entries writable, bypassing write-fault permission handling for a shared mapping. A local process with ordinary execution privileges can trigger the path without user interaction and cross the kernel permission boundary.
Summary
What happened
Privilege escalation in the Android kernel allows local users to gain elevated privileges through a shared writable memory mapping. The change_pte_range optimization in mm/mprotect.c immediately marks eligible page-table entries writable, bypassing write-fault permission handling for a shared mapping. A local process with ordinary execution privileges can trigger the path without user interaction and cross the kernel permission boundary.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2021-39802
- Published
- Apr 12, 2022
- Updated
- Aug 4, 2024
- Vendor
- Google Cloud
- Product
- Android
- Classifications
- CWE-863, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Apr 12, 2022CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 4, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=Android kernel
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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