What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities
CVE-2009-2692
- Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
- Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
- EPSS: 14.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
- Public exploit or detection template: yes
- Published: 2009-08-14 · updated 2026-06-16
- Weakness: CWE-908
Description
The Linux kernel 2.6.0 through 2.6.30.4, and 2.4.4 through 2.4.37.4, does not initialize all function pointers for socket operations in proto_ops structures, which allows local users to trigger a NULL pointer dereference and gain privileges by using mmap to map page zero, placing arbitrary code on this page, and then invoking an unavailable operation, as demonstrated by the sendpage operation (sock_sendpage function) on a PF_PPPOX socket.
Affected products
- Debian Linux: 4.0
- Linux kernel: from 2.4.4 before 2.4.37.5; from 2.6.0 before 2.6.30.5 — fixed in 2.4.37.5, 2.6.30.5
- RedHat Enterprise Linux Desktop: 4.0, 5.0
- RedHat Enterprise Linux Eus: 4.8, 5.3
- RedHat Enterprise Linux Server: 4.0, 5.0
- RedHat Enterprise Linux Server Aus: 5.3
- RedHat Enterprise Linux Workstation: 4.0, 5.0
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time: 10
How to fix
Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 2.4.37.5, 2.6.30.5. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.
References
- http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/fulldisclosure/2009-08/0174.html
- http://blog.cr0.org/2009/08/linux-null-pointer-dereference-due-to.html
- http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-2.4.37.y.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=c18d0fe535a73b219f960d1af3d0c264555a12e3
- http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=e694958388c50148389b0e9b9e9e8945cf0f1b98
- http://grsecurity.net/~spender/wunderbar_emporium.tgz
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2009-09/msg00001.html
- http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2009-1222.html
- http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2009-1223.html
- http://secunia.com/advisories/36278
- http://secunia.com/advisories/36289
- http://secunia.com/advisories/36327
- http://secunia.com/advisories/36430
Get alerted when CVE-2009-2692 or the next vulnerability affects your stack