CVE-2009-3624

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: 2009-11-02 · updated 2026-06-16
Weakness: CWE-310

Description

The get_instantiation_keyring function in security/keys/keyctl.c in the KEYS subsystem in the Linux kernel before 2.6.32-rc5 does not properly maintain the reference count of a keyring, which allows local users to gain privileges or cause a denial of service (OOPS) via vectors involving calls to this function without specifying a keyring by ID, as demonstrated by a series of keyctl request2 and keyctl list commands.

Affected products

Linux Kernel: 2.6.24.7, 2.6.25.15
Linux kernel: through 2.6.32; 2.6, 2.6.0, 2.6.1, 2.6.2, 2.6.2.27.13, 2.6.3 (+388)

References

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=21279cfa107af07ef985539ac0de2152b9cba5f5
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2010-01/msg00000.html
http://marc.info/?l=oss-security&m=125619420905341&w=2
http://marc.info/?l=oss-security&m=125624091417161&w=2
http://secunia.com/advisories/37086
http://secunia.com/advisories/38017
http://twitter.com/spendergrsec/statuses/4916661870
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/ChangeLog-2.6.32-rc5
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-864-1
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=21279cfa107af07ef985539ac0de2152b9cba5f5
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2010-01/msg00000.html
http://marc.info/?l=oss-security&m=125619420905341&w=2

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