Local privilege escalation via cgroup parameter type confusion
Published Feb 4, 2022 · Updated Aug 3, 2024
Use-after-free in Linux Kernel before 5.14 rc2 allows local users to escalate privileges and break containers via crafted fsconfig parameters. The cgroup1_parse_param parser treats a union value as a string without checking its type, so a file descriptor supplied as the source parameter is mis-stored and later freed incorrectly. Exploitation requires local user access and can yield host privilege escalation, container breakout, or a denial of service.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in Linux Kernel before 5.14 rc2 allows local users to escalate privileges and break containers via crafted fsconfig parameters. The cgroup1_parse_param parser treats a union value as a string without checking its type, so a file descriptor supplied as the source parameter is mis-stored and later freed incorrectly. Exploitation requires local user access and can yield host privilege escalation, container breakout, or a denial of service.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2021-4154
- Published
- Feb 4, 2022
- Updated
- Aug 3, 2024
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux Kernel
- Classifications
- CWE-416, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Feb 4, 2022CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 3, 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=Fixed in kernel 5.14 rc2
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.
Public exploit references
- CVE-2021-4154 exploitfunctional · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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