CVE-2009-1338

Severity: medium (CVSS 4.6 v2.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2009-04-22 · updated 2026-06-16
Weakness: CWE-264

Description

The kill_something_info function in kernel/signal.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.28 does not consider PID namespaces when processing signals directed to PID -1, which allows local users to bypass the intended namespace isolation, and send arbitrary signals to all processes in all namespaces, via a kill command.

Affected products

Linux kernel: through 2.6.27.21; 2.2.27, 2.4.36, 2.4.36.1, 2.4.36.2, 2.4.36.3, 2.4.36.4 (+110)

References

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=d25141a818383b3c3b09f065698c544a7a0ec6e7
http://lkml.org/lkml/2008/7/23/148
http://secunia.com/advisories/34981
http://secunia.com/advisories/35120
http://secunia.com/advisories/35121
http://secunia.com/advisories/35343
http://secunia.com/advisories/35656
http://wiki.rpath.com/Advisories:rPSA-2009-0084
http://www.debian.org/security/2009/dsa-1787
http://www.debian.org/security/2009/dsa-1800
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.28
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/04/16/2

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